Swiss authorities keep shtum on US tariff strategy

Federal government remains mum on tariff negotiations in the USA Keystone-SDA

For tactical reasons, the government has refrained to comment on how its tariff negotiating team in Washington is proceeding.

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On Friday, it was still unclear with whom in the US administration the Swiss delegation, which had travelled to Washington specifically to discuss tariffs, was in contact.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) and the Swiss economics ministry also remained tight-lipped when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency about the members of the delegation, further planned meetings, and the negotiation timeline.

It was also unclear what possible offer was on the table to abolish the 39% tariffs on imports to the US which came into force on August 7. According to Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter, who spoke to media on Thursday, Switzerland’s beefed-up offer is within the framework of the negotiating mandate approved by the foreign policy committees in parliament. She did not provide any further details, saying the offer couldn’t be discussed publicly.

However, Keller-Sutter did admit that the delegation had pointed out the fact that Switzerland is committed to buying F-35 aircrafts and a Patriot surface-to-air missile system from the US.

Free trade discussions

In an interview in February, Seco’s Helene Budliger Artieda raised the prospect of negotiations for a free trade agreement with the US. Whether such a deal is an option remained open on Friday.

“Switzerland is continuing to work on identifying and removing trade barriers and is always interested in examining further options to further strengthen trade relations with the US,” Seco told Keystone-SDA. It added that it is seeking dialogue with the US administration to find ways to strengthen the trade relationship.

Switzerland and the US have twice held exploratory talks on a possible bilateral free trade agreement – once some 20 years ago and most recently under the first Trump administration.

Talks were not continued under the Biden administration, for whom negotiating free trade deals was not a foreign policy goal.

Translated from German by DeepL/dos

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