Switzerland gains retroactive US tariff cuts

US tariffs on imported goods from Switzerland fall to 15 per cent Keystone-SDA

Tariffs imposed on Swiss goods by the United States will fall from 39% to 15% with retroactive effect from November 14.

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The basis for this is the declaration of intent signed by Switzerland, the US and Liechtenstein on that day.

The US limited the flat-rate additional duty on goods imported from Switzerland to a maximum of 15%, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) announced on Wednesday. In return, Switzerland is lowering import duties on certain fish and agricultural products.

Certain sectors and goods are currently exempt from US additional tariffs, and this should continue to apply. Such exemptions exist for pharmaceuticals, certain chemicals, gold and coffee, for example.

The US is also cancelling the blanket additional tariffs for other Swiss export products. These include aeroplanes, certain parts relevant to aviation, rubber products, cosmetics and generics.

The list will be published in the US Federal Register. According to Seco, Switzerland intends to lobby for further exemptions.

Products that were already subject to tariffs of over 15% before April 2 will again be subject to the original tariffs. April 2 is the day on which US President Donald Trump announced additional tariffs for Switzerland of over 30%.

Similar to EU conditions

However, Switzerland will also reduce tariffs on US goods. These include fish, seafood and certain agricultural products that are not sensitive to agricultural policy.

Switzerland has introduced duty-free, bilateral quotas for meat. They apply to 500 tonnes of beef, 1,000 tonnes of bison and 1,500 tonnes of poultry meat per year.

By limiting the flat-rate additional tariffs imposed by the USA to a maximum of 15%, trade-weighted US tariffs against Switzerland will fall by an average of around 10%, according to Seco.

Swiss companies would once again have similar conditions in the US market as their competitors from the EU and other countries that trade with the US and have a similar economic structure.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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