Bern (Switzerland) (AFP) – Switzerland scrambled for answers Thursday after a last-gasp government mission to Washington failed to stop a 39-percent tariff blow from President Donald Trump, sparking job fears in what businesses called a “horror scenario”. The government was due to hold an emergency meeting after President Karin Keller-Sutter and Economy Minister Guy Parmelin returned home from their trip apparently empty-handed.
Trump blindsided the Swiss last week when he announced that the country would be hit by one of the highest tariffs among new duties on imports from dozens of economies that took effect on Thursday. The Swiss rate was higher than Trump’s previous threat of a 31-percent tariff. Keller-Sutter rushed to the US capital with a small delegation earlier this week to seek a friendlier levy, but she only secured a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who does not oversee tariff policy. After Wednesday’s meeting, Keller-Sutter spoke only of “a very friendly and open exchange on common issues”. The Swiss government said Thursday that it would hold an extraordinary meeting and issue a statement.
The tariff jeopardises entire sectors of the export-heavy Swiss economy, notably watchmaking and industrial machinery, but also chocolate and cheese. Some politicians have suggested that FIFA’s Swiss president Gianni Infantino, who has struck a friendship with Trump, should be recruited to help Switzerland. Infantino is “the right man for the situation”, Roland Rino Buechel, a lawmaker of the hard-right Swiss People’s Party, told SRF television. He said the FIFA boss is “the person in Switzerland with the best access to the American president”.
Swiss businesses worry that competitors in other wealthy economies will have an edge, with the European Union and Japan having negotiated a 15-percent tariff and Britain securing a rate of 10 percent. “The horror scenario materializes,” Swissmem, the association of the mechanical and electrical engineering industry, said in a statement. “If this horrendous tariff burden remains in place, it will mean the de facto death of the export business of the Swiss tech industry to the USA — in particular given the much lower tariffs for competitors in the EU and Japan.” The group urged the government to continue to negotiate with the United States, “even if the chances of success currently appear to be slim”.
Economiesuisse, the federation of Swiss businesses representing some 100,000 companies, also called for more talks, warning that the tariffs “put thousands of jobs at serious risk”. Capital Economics, a London-based research group, said the tariffs could reduce Swiss GDP by 0.6 percent in the medium term. Trump justified his action by the fact that Switzerland has a trade surplus of tens of billions of dollars with the United States. Nearly 19 percent of Swiss goods exports went to the United States last year, according to customs data. Switzerland’s pharmaceutical industry, a major exporter, has been exempt so far, but Trump has announced plans to hit the global sector with a separate tariff. Switzerland had argued that the United States enjoys a significant services trade surplus and that most American industrial goods enter Switzerland tariff-free.
© 2024 AFP
