The US may drag the European Union into a trade war. This opinion was expressed by Sweden's Minister for Foreign Trade and International Development Cooperation, Benjamin Dusa, ahead of a meeting with his colleagues in Brussels.

“The US has already escalated the situation on several levels, and we cannot rule out that they will drag us into a trade war,” he said. "A 30% tariff is obviously not something we Europeans can accept. We have always tried to find a compromise solution that would suit all of us, but the White House continues to go its own way, and I find that regrettable.“

Dusa believes that the EU has conducted trade negotiations with the US ”by all the rules of the game" and has not yet raised a single tariff on imports of American goods. “We were very close to reaching an agreement in principle that would have smoothed out the trade conflict. I find it a little surprising that the White House decided to escalate the situation when we were so close to the finish line,” he said.

The minister warned that Brussels should prepare for the worst. “New messages from the White House are coming in every hour and every day, so it's hard to guess what they're thinking. But we have to prepare for the worst,” Dusa explained.