The Dutch prime minister said “No” when Trump claimed that failing to reach an agreement on EU trade would be a good thing.
ADVERTISEMENTDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte interrupted Donald Trump on Monday, saying “No” when the US president claimed that failing to reach a deal on EU trade would be "positive".
The US has imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminium imports and is conducting another national security study that could lead to tariffs on autos and auto parts.
“I think the EU — we’re going to be meeting with them fairly soon,” Trump said. “They want to see if they can work something out, and that’ll be good, and if we do work it out, that’ll be positive, and if we don’t, it’ll be positive also, because…”
But before Trump could finish his sentence, Rutte laughed and said “No.”
"Just think about those cars that pour in here, and we’ll do something, right?” Trump responded.
“It’s not positive. We have to work something out,” Rutte said.
The two leaders then quickly shook hands as Trump thanked Rutte for joining him.
The EU has been engaged in a dispute with the US over the steel and aluminium tariffs, which were introduced on June 1.
It responded with "rebalancing measures" that hit around €2.8 billion worth of American-made products.
The bloc warned Washington on Friday that a threat to further slap Europe with major auto tariffs could inflict major damage to the US economy and would prompt retaliation.