Norway, US Have A ‘Good Tone’ In Trump Tariff Negotiations, Says Finance Minister Stoltenberg

Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said the country and the U.S. have had a “good tone” on negotiations on President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Stoltenberg said Norway is addressing “some real issues” in its trade deal negotiations with the U.S.

Norway, which is outside the European Union, will have to negotiate with the U.S. independently. However, Stoltenberg said the country would have to pursue trade expansion with other countries. He noted that Norway is in close talks with both the EU and the U.S.

“We have, as I say, a good tone” with the U.S. on a trade deal, Stoltenberg said.

“We continue to work for a solution that can prevent increased tariffs. If it doesn’t happen, well, then we will see more trade with other countries than the United States because tariffs will reduce trade. But we will continue to trade with each other,” he added, without detailing the status of Norway’s negotiations with the U.S.

This comes after President Trump said 150 countries will receive tariff letters.

President Trump also revealed earlier this week that he is open to talks with the European Union, days after slapping 30% tariffs on the economic bloc, saying he’d like to do a “different” kind of deal with the economic bloc.

“We’re always open to talk. We are open to talk, including to Europe. In fact, they’re coming over. They’d like to talk,” he added.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities exhibited caution in Wednesday’s midday trading session, despite the better-than-expected results of major banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was up 0.18% at the time of writing, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) declined 0.09%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits has been in the ‘neutral’ territory over the past week.

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