US tariff rate cut: Swiss press are upbeat but warn of high cost

In April, US President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 31% on imported goods from Switzerland. These were later raised to 39%. The new rate has been agreed at 15%. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss media has breathed a collective sigh of relief following the announcement of a framework trade agreement on Friday that includes Washington slashing its tariffs on imported Swiss products to 15% from 39% and a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200 billion in the US by the end of 2028. But newspaper editorials highlight the high price Switzerland paid to secure the deal.

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“Thank you President Trump,” wrote 24 Heures and Tribune de Genève, quoting a tweet posted by the Swiss government on Friday on the social media platform X after the deal was announced. “Like our European neighbours, our country can finally rejoice in the fact that it will ‘only’ be taxed at 15%, at the cost of major economic concessions,” they declared.

But this “thank you” just confirms what the whole world already knows, say the papers: “Switzerland has been slow to understand: Donald Trump sets the rules.” They also talk of the “long diplomatic lapses of our Federal Council”, which “will have been slow to get up to speed and decipher the American president’s compass, his erratic and brutal policy”.

A Pyrrhic victory

The French-language Le Temps welcomed the fact that the agreement now enables Swiss companies to compete on equal footing with their European neighbours. It also shows that Switzerland has been able to react thanks to the “rapid and effective mobilisation” of business leaders. But the deal is far from perfect and will not erase “the humiliation of August”, when Washington imposed a 39% tariff on Switzerland, it added.

It’s “a Pyrrhic victory”, notes La Liberté. “From the outset, the Swiss government has been humiliated by the occupant of the White House. Confident of his strength, he took the Federal Council for a ride, which nevertheless had no option but to return to the negotiating table, suffering torment and ridicule,” it noted.

Consequently, Switzerland has had to “kowtow to the foreign judge” Trump, who is forcing it to invest $200 billion in the US between now and 2028. This will involve transferring jobs across the Atlantic and accepting imports of controversial agricultural products like hormone-treated beef or chlorinated chickens, whose production is banned in Switzerland, warns the Fribourg paper.

Many German-language Swiss papers welcomed the US tariff rate cut. This has allowed Switzerland to “avoid the worst”, Tamedia group papers say. But this is only a first step, they point out, as the agreement still has to be approved by the Swiss political authorities. “It’s not out of the question that something could go wrong. Or that the situation could escalate again,” they warned.

US Supreme Court

In addition, proceedings are pending before the US Supreme Court on the legality of Trump’s tariff strategy. If the judges were to rule in favour of tariff opponents, “everything would have to be redone, including the possibility that Trump might impose new tariffs on the basis of a different law”.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) said tariffs may have been reduced to 15%, but this is well above the 3% average in force at the start of the year. It added that there is still much uncertainty regarding Trump’s next intentions. “Politics in Washington is and remains a major risk for Switzerland, with or without Trump,” NZZ said.

The CH Media newspaper group, for its part, questioned why Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, who was still actively involved in negotiations and communications this summer, was not present at the Bern press conference on Friday. Did the United States no longer want to see Keller-Sutter after her disastrous phone call with Trump?” they asked.

The Swiss public broadcaster SRF meanwhile pointed out that it was Donald Trump, not the Swiss president, who was “responsible for this setback”. SRF said Guy Parmelin and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appear to have a good working relationship. “Parmelin, who has always been somewhat underestimated and even sometimes ridiculed in German-speaking Switzerland in recent years, has suddenly become the strong man of the Federal Council, the man who saved the export industry and, as a result, thousands of jobs,” SRF said.

But Blick insists that it is private businesspeople who succeeded where Swiss ministers failed: they secured a meeting with the president in the Oval Office. “Trump, who has trouble with ministers, received the Swiss business club, listened to them, allowed himself to be offered gifts and showed goodwill,” Blick said.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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