US has reached a trade deal with Switzerland, say officials

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The Trump administration has reached a trade deal with Switzerland that will lower tariffs on imports from the country to 15 per cent, bringing their months-long commercial dispute to an end, US and Swiss officials said on Friday.

Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, told CNBC that details of the pact would be released later in the day, saying that Switzerland had agreed to “send a lot of manufacturing” and reduce its trade surplus with the US.

Washington imposed a 39 per cent tariff on Swiss imports in August — hitting Bern with some of the highest levies in Europe and triggering a lengthy series of negotiations between the countries.

Even as Washington clinched agreements with the UK, the EU and a series of other trading partners in recent months, a deal with Switzerland failed to come together until this week. Swiss officials have been hoping to reduce US tariffs to 15 per cent, bringing them down to the same level as those imposed on the EU.

“Switzerland and the USA have successfully reached a solution: The US tariffs will be reduced to 15 per cent. Thank you President Trump for the constructive engagement,” said the Swiss federal council — the executive branch — in a statement on X on Friday.

The deal follows a visit to the White House last week by senior Swiss executives, including from Rolex and Richemont, to impress upon Donald Trump the damage the levies were doing to Switzerland.

Johann Rupert, chair of Cartier owner Richemont, said the tariffs were “devastating for the whole of Switzerland” at the company’s quarterly update on Friday.

Under the terms of the deal, Switzerland will invest $200bn in the US during Trump’s term, including $70bn next year. The agreement also includes transfers of production sites to the US by pharmaceutical companies, gold refineries and railway equipment manufacturers.

The country also softened some of its agricultural trade barriers, which could be unpopular with its farming industry, and agreed to buy more Boeing planes from the US.

“The deal is not radically different from the original offer,” said one person close to the negotiations. “What changed is how Switzerland approached the talks,” they added, pointing to the greater involvement of Swiss business.

Swiss economy minister Guy Parmelin, who negotiated with the US, said Bern had “not made any concessions that would threaten its neutrality or independence”.

The agreement with Switzerland comes as Trump is facing renewed pressure to ease tariffs in the wake of dismal Republican results in state and local elections this month, where voters punished the president’s party for failing to curb inflation and tackle cost-of-living concerns.

US officials have vowed to cut tariffs on imports of certain food products, such as coffee and bananas, that are generally not produced in the US. On Thursday, they announced they had reached deals with Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador to reduce levies on a number of goods.