Sweden wants to boost the liberal economic stance of the EU by rallying pro-free trade countries against what Stockholm views as a "scary" rise of protectionism both within the 27-member bloc and outside its borders, the country's trade minister Ewa Bjorling has said.
"We have seen more and more EU countries getting together among the protectionists. It's scary for us as the watchdogs of free trade," Ms Bjorling told Reuters on Monday (10 March) after a meeting of EU trade ministers.
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