Trump tariffs on gold bars drive prices to record high
Prices hit an all-time high of $3,534 (£2,632) overnight and were trading up 1.2pc on Friday morning amid reports that the US president is set to slap import duties on 1kg gold bars.
The US Customs Border Protection agency said 1kg and 100g bars will be subject to levies on imports, according to a letter first reported by the Financial Times.
Spot gold – the price of gold that can be bought and sold immediately – is currently trading at around $3,400, just shy of the all-time high recorded in April.
It comes after Mr Trump slapped 39pc tariffs on imports from Switzerland earlier this month, landing it with one of the highest tariff rates of any country outside of Asia. Only countries such as Laos, Myanmar and China have higher tariffs. Mr Trump has also threatened to impose a 50pc tariff on goods from India in a row over its purchases of Russian oil.
Representatives from Switzerland flew to the US earlier this week to hold crisis talks with US trade officials in a bid to ease the levies.
Such stringent tariffs have been imposed on Switzerland because of its substantial trade surplus with the US, which is around £28.8bn. This is thanks to exports of watches, chocolate, pharmaceuticals and high-tech machinery.
The country is also the world's leading gold exporter. Gold bullion made up more than £45bn of Switzerland's exports to the US in the 12 months to June.
Shares in Swiss luxury goods firms, such as Richemont, have taken a hit over the past week after Mr Trump's shock tariff raid was confirmed on Aug 1, a Swiss national holiday.
The tariffs on gold bars are a particular surprise, as US customs agents had previously classified the metal as exempt from import levies.
Nikolay Markov, an economist at Pictet Asset Management in Geneva, told The Telegraph this week he expected Mr Trump's tariffs to knock 1.8pc of Switzerland's growth.
He said: 'It implies no growth for Switzerland in the coming year. It really changes the economic outlook.'
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