Switzerland is trying to persuade the US government not to impose tariffs on Swiss products. For this reason, the country’s economic affairs minister, Guy Parmelin, has emphasized Switzerland’s positive impact on the US economy.
Last week, a Swiss delegation visited Washington. This was after the US announced it was looking into countries for unfair trade practices. Switzerland also made it to this list.
According to a Reuters report, Guy Parmelin said it’s not clear whether Switzerland will dodge U.S. reciprocal tariffs, which will be announced on April 2nd regardless of Swiss officials’ explanation of their position.
Parmelin told Swiss Public Radio (SRF) on Saturday “We have signaled we are ready to discuss and to show we have benefits for the US.”
He emphasized that Switzerland is the 6th largest foreign investor in the US. Moreover, companies in Switzerland have a workforce of around 400,000 US citizens. They are also offered high salary packages.
He said, “We are a strong investor […] and we want to invest more.”
However, it remains unclear if this was enough for the US to exempt Switzerland from its future tariffs. This is because Switzerland is not abolishing its own sales taxes.
Parmelin said it’s difficult to convince Trump as he objects to other countries charging sales taxes from the US.
Switzerland still awaits the April 2nd announcement. Parmelin said, “The high-level political discussions will come afterward.”
Switzerland has limited options to retaliate against US tariffs
The country has also previously shared concerns over Trump’s tariff. Last year, in November, a spokesman for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs told Reuters that “Switzerland is concerned about Donald Trump’s announcement to impose additional tariffs on all goods imported into the U.S.”
SECO spokesman said that the country strongly opposes US tariffs because such tariffs would violate the rules-based international trading system, which Switzerland relies on for its economy.
Moreover, Switzerland’s options to retaliate against US tariffs are limited. Parmelin shared that Switzerland has “abolished industrial tariffs” on the US. This has benefited the US as 99% of goods come to Switzerland without customs duties. Parmelin added, “Probably other countries don’t have that.”
Switzerland has already made its market highly accessible to U.S. goods, so the Swiss government has little leverage left. Therefore it is looking into “sensible responses” to Trump’s tariff threats.
They are also trying to initiate discussions with U.S. authorities and important trading partners in Germany, France, Italy, and the EU to form a collaborative approach or negotiate terms.
Experts suggest that the Swiss economy, heavily reliant on exports, could face serious challenges if the U.S. imposes additional tariffs, as the United States is Switzerland’s largest trading partner.
Analysts predict that if severe repercussions such as a trade war occur or companies begin relocating to evade tariffs, Switzerland’s economic output could decline by around 1%.
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