"I put on a 30% tariff, which is very low. Still, we were having a big deficit but it was half the deficit and I got an emergency call from I believe the prime minister of Switzerland and she was very aggressive. Nice, but very aggressive. Sir, we are a small country. We can't do this. We can't do this. I couldn't get her off the phone."
"We are a small country, and I said, you may be a small country, but we have a $42 billion deficit with you. No, no, we are a small country. Again and again and again, I couldn't get her off the phone. So it was at 30% and I didn't really like the way she talked to us, and so instead of giving her a reduction I raised it to 39%,"
President Donald Trump described imposing steeper tariffs on Switzerland after an aggressive phone call with the country's leader. He said an initial 30% tariff reduced the U.S. trade deficit by half and prompted an emergency call in which the Swiss leader repeatedly called Switzerland a "small country." Trump said he raised the tariff from 30% to 39% because he disliked the leader's tone. He said U.S. officials and Swiss representatives later inundated him, leading him to make the tariff more palatable. Trump also characterized opposition to his reciprocal tariff strategy as rooted in stupidity or hatred and previously referenced the call in Davos.
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