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Confusion and anger in Switzerland - hit by highest tariffs in Europe
Imogen Foulkes
Geneva correspondent, BBC News
39%? For Switzerland, this is a huge shock, and worse than the worst-case scenario – these are the highest tariffs in Europe.
Globally, the fourth highest, behind only Syria, Laos, and Myanmar, (although if President Trump follows through on his 50% tariff threat then Brazil will jump to the top of the list).
It's the one story dominating the news and the airwaves on Friday. One newspaper, Blick, described it as the country's biggest defeat since French victory in the battle of Marignano in 1515.
Just weeks ago, Switzerland's government was exuding confidence.
In May, a Swiss facilitated meeting between the US and China in Geneva, aimed at preventing a trade war between the two economic superpowers, allowed Switzerland's president Karin Keller-Sutter to grab a meeting with US trade secretary Scott Bessent.
She came out smiling. She had been told, she said, that Switzerland was likely to be second on the list after the United Kingdom to strike a trade deal with Washington. 10%, she hinted, was the tempting tariff offer, far lower than the 31% Donald Trump had unveiled for Switzerland on his 'liberation day' in April.
Now, those illusions are shattered. Just hours before the August first deadline, one last telephone call between Ms Keller-Sutter and President Trump yielded nothing. Hours later came the news that the tariffs would not be 31% as originally threatened, but a punitive 39%.
Why? Some Swiss politicians are already arguing that Switzerland's negotiating tactics were not up to scratch – but some say too tough, others say too obsequious. The reality may be more straightforward: Trump was keen to make big deals, and Switzerland just isn't that big. It's not even clear how many discussions the Swiss trade negotiators were able to have with their US counterparts.
The sticking point, the Swiss government says now, is the trade deficit it has with the US.
Trump sees trade deficits - when a country sells more to the US than it buys - as inherently a problem for the US, although this is a view not widely shared by economists. He believes tariffs can help protect the US manufacturing sector, which for decades has lost jobs to companies overseas.
The Swiss trade deficit with the US was $47.4 billion in 2024, though if service industries are included, which Trump conveniently ignored, the deficit shrinks to $22 billion. Switzerland sells more (primarily in pharmaceuticals, gold jewellery, watches and machine tools) to the US than it buys.
messing with good relations one "deal" at a time.
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Surely he'll just get some symbolic change to get to say that he got a good deal and in one week we'll be at a lower rate, I wish there was a way for journalists to explain that
Also "not widely shared by economics" I hate these guys ffs it's not "not widely shared by economics", it's "incorrect", you muppet.
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well it unfortunately is not wrong - it is not a widely shared view... anyone giving a damn about integrity and calling a spade a spade is in the minority to begin with.
then when you "like" Trump you fall in line with whatever idiocy. it is just an easy way "in" to gain influence and/or a cozy place to work. at least for a while.
frustrating for sure.
I later noticed and unfortunately did not quote the part where it even was the national holiday on friday. shortly after Switzerland got news of their "privilege" to pay for being able to "freely enter" the US market.
stings even more.
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Was suprised to notice that USD is already down to 0.86€.
If Trump had his way with the Fed I guess it would be down to 0.70€
If you calculate the Euro-Worth of the Dow Jones.. it's down to barely 38k points, same as the 6k Points crash of "Trump Tariffs"
(In Dec24 it was basicly $:€ 1:1 at 43k.. now it's 43k again.. basicly all stocks lost 15% in Euro-evaluation)
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Northern Ireland25339 Posts
On August 02 2025 21:41 Doublemint wrote:Confusion and anger in Switzerland - hit by highest tariffs in EuropeShow nested quote +Imogen Foulkes
Geneva correspondent, BBC News
39%? For Switzerland, this is a huge shock, and worse than the worst-case scenario – these are the highest tariffs in Europe.
Globally, the fourth highest, behind only Syria, Laos, and Myanmar, (although if President Trump follows through on his 50% tariff threat then Brazil will jump to the top of the list).
It's the one story dominating the news and the airwaves on Friday. One newspaper, Blick, described it as the country's biggest defeat since French victory in the battle of Marignano in 1515.
Just weeks ago, Switzerland's government was exuding confidence.
In May, a Swiss facilitated meeting between the US and China in Geneva, aimed at preventing a trade war between the two economic superpowers, allowed Switzerland's president Karin Keller-Sutter to grab a meeting with US trade secretary Scott Bessent.
She came out smiling. She had been told, she said, that Switzerland was likely to be second on the list after the United Kingdom to strike a trade deal with Washington. 10%, she hinted, was the tempting tariff offer, far lower than the 31% Donald Trump had unveiled for Switzerland on his 'liberation day' in April.
Now, those illusions are shattered. Just hours before the August first deadline, one last telephone call between Ms Keller-Sutter and President Trump yielded nothing. Hours later came the news that the tariffs would not be 31% as originally threatened, but a punitive 39%.
Why? Some Swiss politicians are already arguing that Switzerland's negotiating tactics were not up to scratch – but some say too tough, others say too obsequious. The reality may be more straightforward: Trump was keen to make big deals, and Switzerland just isn't that big. It's not even clear how many discussions the Swiss trade negotiators were able to have with their US counterparts.
The sticking point, the Swiss government says now, is the trade deficit it has with the US.
Trump sees trade deficits - when a country sells more to the US than it buys - as inherently a problem for the US, although this is a view not widely shared by economists. He believes tariffs can help protect the US manufacturing sector, which for decades has lost jobs to companies overseas.
The Swiss trade deficit with the US was $47.4 billion in 2024, though if service industries are included, which Trump conveniently ignored, the deficit shrinks to $22 billion. Switzerland sells more (primarily in pharmaceuticals, gold jewellery, watches and machine tools) to the US than it buys. messing with good relations one "deal" at a time.
‘Trump sees trade deficits - when a country sells more to the US than it buys - as inherently a problem for the US, although this is a view not widely shared by economists.’
I mean there’s your problem right there.
It’s completely asinine fucking nonsense. It doesn’t even factor in the sectors that may contribute to such a deficit. If deficit exists, tariffs are a good idea.
If we had a hypothetical nation which had some miracle resource that only existed there, and ran a trade surplus with the States they’d be tariffed too.
It’s so, so profoundly stupid, I’d feel contempt if this was the government of some banana republic.
This is the United States, an absolute powerhouse full of very smart people, plenty of whom reside on these hallowed boards, fuck me how is this your governmental representation?
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The fun part is that one of the largest US industries, services, was excluded when they calculated deficits. Which is why I keep harping that we should crack down on US IT since that is the sector they care the least about.
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The longer all of this goes on and the longer I pay attention to how news perculates to most people, I think the biggest reason for Trump's second term is tech oligarchy jumping on board.
I have a friend, basically completely apolitical, doesn't really pay attention to news past the occasional headline. We had one of our wine cellar sessions and we got to talk about American politics.
There were 2 more friends there, one is a big NBA fan and huge into movies, spends quite a bit of time on Youtube.
The 3rd one is a guy who I talk about these things a lot, he's much more informed, down to being able to tell you what each of Trump's impeachments was about.
We got to talk about tariffs and the instability in the world, everyone agreed it was crazy, and the 2nd friend said he would have voted for Trump if he was American in November, but now that he sees it in action he regrets thinking like that.
We went over why he would have voted for him in November, and it was mostly "Kamala was crazy, did you see her laugh, she wanted to make everyone Trans, make children Transition etc.". I can't say I was super suprised because I uspected this buddy went down the youtube rabbithole of "I hate Disney because of new Star Wars, then I hate it because they are making the little mermaid black, why is Acolyte full of women and lesbians" and shit like that.
The third guy, well, he said he agrees that what Trump is doing now is pretty crazy but he'd still vote for him because of undisclosed reasons. I didn't want to push no to ruin everyone's evening, but I do know that most of where this guy gets his news is Facebook.
He is also very against funding Ukraine because "USA started that war and did a pouch in Euromaidan" and a bunch of other shit like that.
These networks are extremely good at getting you into an echo chamber and never letting you out.
And these are Croatian guys, I can't even imagine how much of this shit is hitting our American counterparts who are even more online and exposed to this shit from all over.
That's another reason why I'm a pessimist, now that Trump has his grubby little paws all over the USA propaganda machine, supercharged by Palantir, tech companies and AI, I don't think he'll ever be deposed through elections, and that leaves the world in a big pickle.
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On August 04 2025 23:42 WombaT wrote:Show nested quote +On August 02 2025 21:41 Doublemint wrote:Confusion and anger in Switzerland - hit by highest tariffs in EuropeImogen Foulkes
Geneva correspondent, BBC News
39%? For Switzerland, this is a huge shock, and worse than the worst-case scenario – these are the highest tariffs in Europe.
Globally, the fourth highest, behind only Syria, Laos, and Myanmar, (although if President Trump follows through on his 50% tariff threat then Brazil will jump to the top of the list).
It's the one story dominating the news and the airwaves on Friday. One newspaper, Blick, described it as the country's biggest defeat since French victory in the battle of Marignano in 1515.
Just weeks ago, Switzerland's government was exuding confidence.
In May, a Swiss facilitated meeting between the US and China in Geneva, aimed at preventing a trade war between the two economic superpowers, allowed Switzerland's president Karin Keller-Sutter to grab a meeting with US trade secretary Scott Bessent.
She came out smiling. She had been told, she said, that Switzerland was likely to be second on the list after the United Kingdom to strike a trade deal with Washington. 10%, she hinted, was the tempting tariff offer, far lower than the 31% Donald Trump had unveiled for Switzerland on his 'liberation day' in April.
Now, those illusions are shattered. Just hours before the August first deadline, one last telephone call between Ms Keller-Sutter and President Trump yielded nothing. Hours later came the news that the tariffs would not be 31% as originally threatened, but a punitive 39%.
Why? Some Swiss politicians are already arguing that Switzerland's negotiating tactics were not up to scratch – but some say too tough, others say too obsequious. The reality may be more straightforward: Trump was keen to make big deals, and Switzerland just isn't that big. It's not even clear how many discussions the Swiss trade negotiators were able to have with their US counterparts.
The sticking point, the Swiss government says now, is the trade deficit it has with the US.
Trump sees trade deficits - when a country sells more to the US than it buys - as inherently a problem for the US, although this is a view not widely shared by economists. He believes tariffs can help protect the US manufacturing sector, which for decades has lost jobs to companies overseas.
The Swiss trade deficit with the US was $47.4 billion in 2024, though if service industries are included, which Trump conveniently ignored, the deficit shrinks to $22 billion. Switzerland sells more (primarily in pharmaceuticals, gold jewellery, watches and machine tools) to the US than it buys. messing with good relations one "deal" at a time. ‘Trump sees trade deficits - when a country sells more to the US than it buys - as inherently a problem for the US, although this is a view not widely shared by economists.’ I mean there’s your problem right there. It’s completely asinine fucking nonsense. It doesn’t even factor in the sectors that may contribute to such a deficit. If deficit exists, tariffs are a good idea. If we had a hypothetical nation which had some miracle resource that only existed there, and ran a trade surplus with the States they’d be tariffed too. It’s so, so profoundly stupid, I’d feel contempt if this was the government of some banana republic. This is the United States, an absolute powerhouse full of very smart people, plenty of whom reside on these hallowed boards, fuck me how is this your governmental representation?
+ Show Spoiler +
classic observation by the one and only.
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I can't understand why you vote for trump caring for economy unless you are very wealthy and connected and can hedge against all his incompetence.
If you just wish to be wealthy.. voting trump really is like giving money to t TV-Pastor and hope God will multiply it for you.
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On August 05 2025 03:17 KT_Elwood wrote:
I can't understand why you vote for trump caring for economy unless you are very wealthy and connected and can hedge against all his incompetence.
If you just wish to be wealthy.. voting trump really is like giving money to t TV-Pastor and hope God will multiply it for you.
"Biden is president and I don't like where the economy is at, I'll vote for the other party".
Once the Trump turn is over they'll vote for the other guy again.
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On August 05 2025 01:00 Jankisa wrote:
The longer all of this goes on and the longer I pay attention to how news perculates to most people, I think the biggest reason for Trump's second term is tech oligarchy jumping on board.
I have a friend, basically completely apolitical, doesn't really pay attention to news past the occasional headline. We had one of our wine cellar sessions and we got to talk about American politics.
There were 2 more friends there, one is a big NBA fan and huge into movies, spends quite a bit of time on Youtube.
The 3rd one is a guy who I talk about these things a lot, he's much more informed, down to being able to tell you what each of Trump's impeachments was about.
We got to talk about tariffs and the instability in the world, everyone agreed it was crazy, and the 2nd friend said he would have voted for Trump if he was American in November, but now that he sees it in action he regrets thinking like that.
We went over why he would have voted for him in November, and it was mostly "Kamala was crazy, did you see her laugh, she wanted to make everyone Trans, make children Transition etc.". I can't say I was super suprised because I uspected this buddy went down the youtube rabbithole of "I hate Disney because of new Star Wars, then I hate it because they are making the little mermaid black, why is Acolyte full of women and lesbians" and shit like that.
The third guy, well, he said he agrees that what Trump is doing now is pretty crazy but he'd still vote for him because of undisclosed reasons. I didn't want to push no to ruin everyone's evening, but I do know that most of where this guy gets his news is Facebook.
He is also very against funding Ukraine because "USA started that war and did a pouch in Euromaidan" and a bunch of other shit like that.
These networks are extremely good at getting you into an echo chamber and never letting you out.
And these are Croatian guys, I can't even imagine how much of this shit is hitting our American counterparts who are even more online and exposed to this shit from all over.
That's another reason why I'm a pessimist, now that Trump has his grubby little paws all over the USA propaganda machine, supercharged by Palantir, tech companies and AI, I don't think he'll ever be deposed through elections, and that leaves the world in a big pickle.
Sadly, I have a friend, that is going even more crazy and I do not be know where he gets all the bullshit from, but is started with him bring a loner, his dad died, then corona and we lost contact with him for a while. When we started seeing him again he was fun crazy, he kept making remarks about maybe true pseudo economist stuff, like if someone had watched too many investment bros. But always with a laugh. We started to hang out less cause it became tiresome, good friends we are.
Yesterday we met again and after the board game day he started to bombard me with insane stuff. Words transforming into numbers, dissecting numbers into sub groups, looking for those subgroups in like law books like the German BGB and then using the laws to go to the next jump of logic. In-between again and again pure Incel bullshit and casually bringing in "the Jews" and speaking about what us someone supposed to do about it.
It's so insane, it's no shock to know that he is unemployed now and called his mother, she is scared what happened to him.
At this point I don't even know what toxic online bullshit got to him, maybe this is all starting and ending in his brain even. But our society is definitely growing more and more of these isolated people that just break by how empty our world can feel...
Worst thing is, I am probably the last person that might be able to pull him back from this and I have no fucking clue how to do that, no time due to a newborn and after checking the Internet habe found zero institutions that care about this if the person having the issue is not coming forward.
Really sad day.
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EPT
