Swiss President Discussed Tariffs With US Secretary of State

(Bloomberg) — Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter said she talked about trade relations in her meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as she attempts to avert a 39% levy as of Thursday.

“We discussed bilateral cooperation between Switzerland and the US, the tariff situation, and international issues,” she said on X after the meeting in Washington. The US State Department doesn’t lead negotiations for bilateral deals.

The Swiss president dashed to the US capital Tuesday in a last-minute attempt to prevent her American counterpart from imposing the highest tariff of any developed nation on Switzerland. Donald Trump announced the measure last week, and it’s set to take effect Thursday — leaving the Swiss with a tight window to try to sway him.

Keller-Sutter traveled to America without a formal invite from the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter, so it remains to be seen whether the US president will agree to meet.

The two spoke on the phone last Thursday, with Trump telling CNBC that “the woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen” to his complaint about Switzerland’s massive trade surplus with the US.

Asked about the latest on Switzerland, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said that “I’m not aware of any changes since yesterday, but it’s a fast moving thing.”

“You know, we’ve got Switzerland coming in and trying to renegotiate their tariffs, and we’ll see how it goes,” he told Fox Business.

The level of Trump’s tariff stunned the Swiss after talks that they thought looked promising. If the tariff rate came into effect across the board — including on pharmaceuticals — that would put up to 1% of Switzerland’s economic output at risk over the medium term, according to Bloomberg Economics.

The paradox faced by the Swiss president — who also is her country’s finance minister — is that any concessions may be politically costly without meaningfully curbing the US-Switzerland trade gap.

The $38 billion overhang as of last year is probably the main obstacle to any deal. The nature of the massive Swiss surplus with the US — primarily down to gold, pharmaceuticals, watches and medical devices — means a quick reduction is unlikely.

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