Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
You will no doubt remember the catastrophic glacier collapse in Blatten, canton Valais, which almost buried the entire mountain village at the end of May. Today, the Swiss army is concluding its support mission in the Lötschental valley.
The 39% tariff imposed by the United States on imports of goods from Switzerland are not set in stone. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's recent statements in the international press have raised hopes of a slightly lower rate for Switzerland too.
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On May 28, millions of tonnes of rubble and ice buried large parts of the Valais mountain village of Blatten in the Lötschental valley.
Tonight, the army is ending its relief operation in Blatten. After the disaster, those parts of the village that were not buried by the massive landslide were slowly submerged by a lake that formed in the valley. Since June 27, up to 30 members of the Swiss army have been deployed there. They cleared the lake of driftwood and parts of destroyed houses and sorted the salvaged materials for further processing.
“As the lake has a current depth of around 40 centimetres, we can no longer use our boats,” explained Jean-Claude Gagliardi, the lieutenant colonel of Territorial Division 1, in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency.
Since the end of May, the volume of lake water has shrunk by around a third, he said. There has been hardly any change in this respect since July. However, work to lower the water level is still continuing. And the danger of another landslide has not yet been averted.
EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg no longer wants small aircraft on its runways.
A Swiss professional association warns that the airport is depriving itself of its own basis for training.
Private aviation in Switzerland is under increasing pressure. The most recent example is Basel airport, which wants to “utilise its limited space even more specifically for commercial air traffic in future”, a spokesperson told Swiss public radio SRF at the weekend. The plan is to stop by the end of 2026 at the latest.
According to the “Aero Club”, the umbrella organisation for Swiss light aviation and air sports, this announcement is part of a trend. The argument that light aviation is not economically viable for airports is far too short-sighted, says Matthias Jauslin, president of the association and a Liberal Green parliamentarian.
After all, every pilot starts their career in a small aircraft. “We provide the basic training,” says Jauslin. “Everyone is clamouring for local specialists, and at the same time we are removing the basis for training.”
US tariffs continue to worry Switzerland. But recent media reports cite a possible solution to the dispute by the end of October.
Blick was the first Swiss newspaper to report on recent comments by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, which he is said to have made to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei. According to the news report, the US wants to conclude trade talks by the end of October with those countries with which it has not yet reached an agreement.
This includes Switzerland. Exports to the US are currently subject to a tariff of 39%, the highest in Europe. The tariffs imposed unilaterally by the US “should melt away” if the trade imbalances are corrected, Bessent is quoted as saying.
With this goal in mind, Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister is “open” to further defence orders in the US, he told the Keystone-SDA news agency at the weekend. The NZZ am Sonntag also reported that the Swiss pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis are already expanding their production operations in the US.
“What is the effect of a boycott of US products in Switzerland?” asks the Tages-Anzeiger. The article warns that this symbolic gesture could also affect the country itself.
Coca-Cola is regarded as the symbolic US product par excellence. Not surprisingly, many people no longer want to buy the soft drink and other US products as a form of personal protest.
The Tages-Anzeiger reports that there are lists on internet forums and social media showing how to buy European rather than American products. But what’s the impact of such behaviour?
Consumer boycotts could also have undesirable consequences such as jeopardising local jobs, warns Barbara Antonioli Mantegazzini, professor of public economics and sustainability policies at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. Coca-Cola, for example, buys around 95% of its ingredients in Switzerland, while McDonald’s Switzerland buys 86%.
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