Swiss agree to tariff negotiations with Trump administration

Supply Lines is a daily newsletter that follows global trade. . Switzerland said it was one of the 15 countries that would receive “somewhat preferred treatment” after agreed to negotiate with the Trump administration. The levies are kept at 10% during negotiations, even if they extend further as President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff break, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter said in Washington late Thursday after meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent. “There is no fixed timetable. But what is clear is that the 90-day deadline will be extended if you are in conversation,” Keller-Sutter told reporters. “It’s good that Switzerland is one of the 15 countries that gets a somewhat preferred treatment here.” Keller-Sutter, who is also Minister of Finance, was in Washington to support US government officials after being captured by the size of the reciprocal rates on Swiss imports. Trump has already promised to look again at the 31% levies planned for Switzerland, which was much higher than the 20% for the European Union. The Swiss president also discussed non-tariff trading disabilities, subsidies and taxes with berry, as concerns about the double hit for competitiveness of levies and a rising currency were. The market uncertainty that originated through Trump’s trade war means that investors are still attracted by Swiss francs’ safe quality status. This puts pressure on the export -oriented economy of Switzerland, while the freedom of the central bank to intervene to intervene in the franc’s profits is combated by the fear that the US could mark it as a currency. “It’s a double shock for Swiss firms that export to the US,” said Hans Gersbach, deputy head of the Kof Economic Research Institute in Zurich. At Falu AG, a manufacturer of machines manufacturing cottonwabs and pads, new orders have dropped as the tariff uncertainty invests, co-owner and CEO Guy Petignat said. “It’s the right poison,” said the CEO, who prepares to meet customers in the US, who – who vary from year to year – make up as much as a third of revenue at the company based on Rueti near Lake Zurich. “With no clarity about where we are going, everyone keeps quiet for three months.” According to Petignat, it is a crisis comparable to the Covid -19 pandemic, or the Swiss National Bank’s shock power of the Franc Cap in 2015. While the Swiss government dropped its growth forecast for this year, the prospects have so far mitigated by Trump’s release of Pharma – the largest export of Switland. With Trump threatening periodic levies on drugs, that could still change, but Keller-Sutter was optimistic after meeting with berry. “No statements have been made about this, because no decisions have been made yet,” she said. “I was a little under the impression that this wouldn’t happen in the end.” To prevent the impact, the largest Swiss pharmaceutical businesses – Roche Holding AG and Novartis AG – are moving production to the US, with promises to invest $ 50 billion and $ 23 billion respectively. While the pharmaceutical sector makes the Swiss economy more resilient for currency swings, the strong franc is still sore. The currency has appreciated almost 10% against the dollar since Trump’s inauguration. Roche said on Thursday that he expected 2025 sales to grow 5 percentage points less due to the currency impact, if the adoption of the exchange rates remained at their April 23 levels. Nestle SA chief financial officer Anna Manz told analysts the same day that the recent reinforcement of the franc will see a greater impact on future sales. The SNB’s room to facilitate frank pain is limited, with its benchmark interest rate of 0.25% already one of the lowest in the world. The central bank’s intervention to weaken the franc also pulled Trump’s IRe’s first term, with the US Treasury listing Switzerland as a currency manipulator. “The SNB has two horrible options,” says Ipek Ozkardskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote. “Cut again or increase Trump’s anger by intervening during the important three -month negotiation period.” Ozkardskaya expects the SNB to initially lower rates before determining whether further action is needed to tame the franc. Economists at UBS Group AG recently said that the central bank will lower its benchmark to zero when officials meet next in June. At the moment, manufacturers like Falu, along with Swiss watchmakers such as Rolex and Patek Philippe, could possibly adjust prices and accept lower profit margins in the hope that the rates and strength of the Franc are a short-lived porridge, according to Kof economist Gersbach. “If the shock is not temporary, significantly greater adjustments will be needed,” he said. Keller-Sutter highlighted the Swiss investment in the US, pointing out that Switzerland had unilaterally scrapped industrial rates last year, but it is uncertain whether it will satisfy the Trump-focused Trump administration. The Swiss president on Thursday warned that businesses could not live with uncertainty, and although the government was striving for zero tariffs, she sounded about the prospects for negotiations. “I don’t think we will return to the old order completely,” Keller-Sutter said. “We must somehow come up with the new order.” With the help of Sonja Wind and Dylan Griffiths. © 2025 Bloomberg MP This article was generated from an automatic news agency feed without edits to text.