Swiss gold refiners reject tariff relocation

Swiss exports of gold to the US have risen dramatically Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

Switzerland’s trade group for gold refiners opposes a relocation of some operations to the United States to ease a trade imbalance between the countries and help tariff negotiations, newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported.

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The government is trying to find ways to get President Donald Trump to lower his 39% tariff on Switzerland, which is damaging companies and the economy. There have been suggestions that moving gold refining capacity to the US would be an option to appease Trump.

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Christoph Wild, president of the Swiss Association of Precious Metals Producers and Traders, told NZZ that the government “shouldn’t make hasty decisions.”

Wild said Switzerland’s huge gold export surpluses at the end of 2024 and in early 2025 were outliers. Those figures were largely driven by traders moving metals to the US to get ahead of any potential tariffs.

Gold affects Switzerland’s trade balance as the country is a large refiner. Gold moving from Europe to the US must be recast from 400-ounce bars standard in London — the largest gold trading venue — into the 1 kilo or 100-ounce bars required by the US-based Comex exchange.

“We consider the development of additional refining capacity in the USA to be only of limited use,” Wild said.

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