Trump says he hiked Switzerland tariffs because a female official talked ‘aggressively’ to him and he ‘couldn't get her off the phone’

US President Donald Trump, who ordered an additional 9 per cent tariff on Switzerland, said that he did so because he did not like the way a female Swiss official talked to him. During an interview with Fox Business, the American president said he found the tone of Karin Keller-Sutter, a member of the Swiss Federal Council, very "aggressive". He mistakenly called the official the prime minister.

“I put on a 30 per cent tariff, which is very low. Then I got an emergency call from, I believe, the Prime Minister of Switzerland, and she was very aggressive but nice but very aggressive. She said, ‘Sir, we are a small country. We can't do this. We can't do this.’ I couldn't get her off the phone,” he said.

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“‘No, no, we are a small country’. Again and again and again. I couldn't get her off the phone, so it was 30 per cent. 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 per cent,” POTUS added.

He claimed Switzerland was paying no tariffs while exporting goods to America, “like nobody could believe”. The US President made a similar remark a few weeks back in Davos, where he appeared to have no clue if Switzerland had a prime minister or president.

“I guess the Prime Minister, I don’t know, the President, the Prime Minister called, a woman. And she was very repetitive. She said, ‘No, no, no, you can’t do that, 30 per cent. We are a small, small country.’ But I said, ‘You may be small, but you have a big deficit,’” Trump had said.