Switzerland's government to hold special meeting over Trump's huge tariff on Swiss imports
Switzerland was left stunned on Friday after Trump hit the country with one of the highest tariffs in his global trade reset, with industry associations warning that tens of thousands of jobs were at risk.
The duties are scheduled to go into effect on Thursday, giving Switzerland a small window to strike a better deal.
Industry leaders and politicians were struggling to understand why the country was singled out - the EU, Japan and South Korea, for example, face 15% levies - but Switzerland had a 38.5 billion Swiss franc (48 billion dollar) trade surplus with the United States last year.
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter told Reuters on Friday that Switzerland had given US goods virtually free access to its market, and Swiss companies had made very important direct investments in the US.
"The president (Trump) is really focused on the trade deficit, because he thinks that this is a loss for the United States, that every year with Swiss exports, the United States loses, well, 38.5 billion (francs)," she told Reuters. Further measures would have to be discussed by the full Swiss cabinet, she said.
"I'm not ready to make an offer today. I think we have to discuss that in government," Keller-Sutter said.
Swiss officials have rejected reports that the higher than expected tariffs were imposed after a bad-tempered telephone call between Keller-Sutter and Trump late on Thursday.
The government is open to revising its offer to the United States in response to the tariff rate, which is due to go into effect on August 7, Business Minister Guy Parmelin said on Sunday. He said options included Switzerland buying US liquefied natural gas or further investments by Swiss companies in the United States, its biggest export market for pharmaceuticals, watches and machinery.
An index of Swiss blue-chip stocks hit its lowest level since mid-April on Monday, as shares in banks, luxury retailers and pharma companies tumbled. The SMI index was last down 0.6% on the day, compared with a 0.6% rise in the regional STOXX 600 index.
In Zurich, shares in high-end watchmakers such as Richemont and Swatch fell in volatile trading. Richemont stock was last down 0.8%, having dropped as much as 3.5% earlier, while Swatch shares were down 0.7%, having fallen by as much as 5%. Possible US tariffs on pharmaceutical imports are being considered separately. On Monday, the Swiss franc was the worst-performing major currency against the dollar, which was last up 0.7% at 0.809 francs, not far off Friday's one-month highs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
EPA cancels $7 billion Biden-era grant program to boost solar energy
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, August 7, terminated a $7 billion grant program that was intended to help pay for residential solar projects for more than 900,000 lower-income US households. It's the latest Trump administration move hindering the nation's shift to cleaner energy. The funding, part of Democratic President Joe Biden's Solar for All program, was awarded to 60 recipients including states, tribes and regions for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens. Solar, a renewable energy, is widely regarded as a way to introduce cleaner power onto the electrical grid and lower energy bills for American consumers. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement on social media that authority for the program was eliminated under the tax-and-spending bill signed last month by Republican President Donald Trump. The law eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that was approved under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The fund set aside $20 billion in "green bank" money for community development projects to boost renewable energy, and an additional $7 billion for the solar program. "The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive," Zeldin said. "Today, the Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!" Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who introduced the Solar for All program to slash electric bills for working families, called Zeldin's action illegal. "Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change," Sanders said in a statement. "At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn't just wrong − it's absolutely insane. We will fight back to preserve this enormously important program." The Trump administration has already targeted the "green bank" funds, first freezing the grants, then terminating the agreements altogether. Zeldin called them "a clear-cut case of waste and abuse" and a "gold bar" scheme earlier this year. The EPA has argued that the tax and policy bill law repealed the green bank and allows the agency to rescind the money it has already obligated. The recipients of that money disagree: They say the bulk of the money had already been disbursed and isn't affected by the law. Grant recipients have filed lawsuits challenging the administration's actions, and a judge ruled in April that the EPA cannot freeze the contracts. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee, called Zeldin's elimination of the solar program a betrayal "that will further hike electricity costs and make our power grid less reliable." "Trump is − yet again − putting his fossil fuel megadonors first," he added.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
US to rewrite its past national climate reports
The decision, announced by Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a CNN appearance Tuesday night, follows the government's revocation of the Endangerment Finding, a scientific determination that underpins a host of regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Asked by CNN's Kaitlan Collins why previous editions of the National Climate Assessment were no longer available online, former fracking company CEO Wright responded: "Because we're reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those." First published in 2000, the National Climate Assessment has long been viewed as a cornerstone of the US government's understanding of climate science, synthesizing input from federal agencies and hundreds of external experts. Previous editions warned in stark terms of mounting risks to America's economy, infrastructure, and public health if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed. But in April, the administration moved to dismiss the hundreds of scientists working on the sixth edition. Under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the government is legally obligated to deliver the climate assessment to Congress and the president. Trump's administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have pressed forward with their pro- fossil fuel agenda -- dismantling clean energy tax credits through the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" and opening more ecologically sensitive lands to drilling. Last month's proposed revocation of the Endangerment Finding by the Environmental Protection Agency was accompanied by the release of a new climate study from the Department of Energy, authored by climate change contrarians. The study questioned whether heat records are truly increasing and whether extreme weather is worsening. It also misrepresented the work of cited climate scientists, according to several who spoke to AFP, and suggested that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide could be a net benefit for agriculture.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
US uses war rhetoric, Superman to recruit for migrant crackdown
Job ads promising $50,000 signing bonuses to new "Deportation Officers" have flooded social media over the past week, accompanied by jingoistic rallying slogans that declare "America Needs You." White House officials have shared World War I-style posters, including one with Uncle Sam donning an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) baseball cap, while a former Superman actor has pledged he will "be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP." "So many patriots have stepped up, and I'm proud to be among them," Dean Cain, who starred as the Man of Steel in 1990s TV series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," told FOX News. ICE, the agency chiefly responsible for the recent, divisive masked raids on farms, factories and Home Depot parking lots across the nation, is pulling out all the stops to hire new officers at a staggering rate. Flush with $75 billion in extra funding -- making it the highest-funded US law enforcement agency, ahead of even the FBI -- ICE has been tasked by Trump with deporting one million undocumented immigrants per year. To do so, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has pledged to hire 10,000 new officers, in a process that would swell ICE's ranks by a whopping 50 percent. On Wednesday, Noem scrapped pre-existing age caps that prevented over-40s from becoming deportation officers. Student debt forgiveness, generous overtime pay and enhanced retirement benefits are all being flouted -- alongside language about the opportunity to "Fulfill your destiny" and "Defend the Homeland." "Your nation needs you to step into the breach. For our country, for our culture, for our way of life. Will you answer the call?" read one post on Department of Homeland Security social media accounts. 'All-hands-on-deck' DHS officials say they have received 80,000 applications since the recruitment campaign began less than a week ago. But critics have quickly highlighted evidence that the aggressive drive may not be working as effectively as officials claim. Dozens of officials at FEMA -- a separate agency that deals with emergency disaster response -- have been reassigned to ICE and threatened with losing their jobs if they do not move, the Washington Post reported. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Post the move was part of "an all-hands-on-deck strategy to recruit 10,000 new ICE agents." An ICE pilot program offering agents additional cash bonuses for deporting people quickly was scrapped less than four hours after it was announced, when its existence was leaked to the New York Times. And some local law enforcement agencies that have cooperated with the federal immigration crackdown have complained that they are now seeing their own officers poached. "ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong," a Florida sheriff's office spokesperson told CNN. -'Kryptonite' - Perhaps the highest profile and most scathing response has come from "South Park," the popular animated TV satire that is becoming a thorn in the Trump administration's side. In a recent episode, hapless school counselor Mr Mackey is offered an ICE job after a seven-second-long interview, immediately handed a gun and sent on a raid of a children's concert. "If you're crazy, or fat and lazy, we don't care at all," says a fictional ICE job advert. "Remember, only detain the brown ones. If it's brown, it goes down," orders Noem's character during a satirical sequence set during an immigration raid in heaven. ICE raids have been accused using racial profiling by rights groups. Meanwhile, the recruitment drive has been hailed by conservative outlets. Fox News celebrated the news that Superman actor Cain had enlisted with the headline banner "Illegals, meet your Kryptonite." Several others pointed out that Superman, a beloved comic book hero who is closely associated with American patriotism, is "quite literally an alien immigrant." © 2025 AFP
