Europe needs to have a backbone and stand up to US president Donald Trump, Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof has told broadcaster CNN.

Speaking on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Schoof said that Europe does not need to confront the US over import tariffs.

“We have to realise we have a big consumer market, great technology and industry. We want to make the EU more competitive and a strong partner for the US,” he said.

Asked if the EU needed to show backbone and stand up to Trump, Schoof said that the EU is not going to play the victim. “We have to act from a position of strength,” he said. “We need to realise this. This is our position and that, I think, it will be Europe’s position as well.”

Adopting a tit-for-tat policy, he said, “will lead us down the drain.”

The Draghi report on sustainable competitiveness and economic security, has only just been published, but will have a key role, he said.

“We will make every effort to make it happen,” Schoof told CNN. “I think the momentum and perhaps the pressure from the United States will help on that.”

Dutch economic affairs minister Dirk Beljaarts cancelled his plans to attend the annual WEF meeting after his party leader Geert Wilders stated on social media that no PVV ministers or MPs would be attending.

The pro-farmers BBB is also boycotting the event which ends on Friday.

Wilders did not explain why no PVV representatives would be at the meeting, but, according to the AD, the WEF’s reputation as a venue where deals are made behind closed doors by a “global elite” may have played a role.