President Donald Trump signed the decree increasing customs duties on Thursday evening for dozens of countries. According to the list published by the White House, Switzerland will be taxed at 39%.
This decree imposes an increase in customs duties for dozens of countries around the world, with which the United States considers to have a more or less marked trade deficit.
In a document published on its website, the White House evokes a measure which aims to ‘restructure world trade for the benefit of American workers’.
New customs duties are between 10% and 41%, the highest on Syria. With 39%, Switzerland is the most harsh European country taxed in front of Serbia (35%), while the European Union, like Liechtenstein, Japan or South Korea, is applied a surcharge of 15%.
Effective surcharges on August 7
The new surchastens imposed on products from dozens of trade partners in the United States will begin to be collected on August 7, seven days after the date initially announced, a senior American official announced on Thursday.
This period of seven days before effective entry into force is provided to allow customs to organize, according to AFP.
Interview with M. STRUM FACTUREMENT
Earlier in the evening, the president of the Confederation Karin Keller-Sutter had announced on the social network ‘X’ that Switzerland and the United States had failed to get along.
The president said he had conversed with Donald Trump shortly before the expiration of the deadline set by Washington on August 1.
‘I had an interview today with President Trump before the expiration of the deadline for customs duties. The trade deficit remains at the center of its concerns. This interview did not make it possible to find an agreement on the declaration of intention negotiated between Switzerland and the United States, ‘had written Karin Keller-Sutter.
‘Unusual and exceptional’ threat ‘
In the decree, Mr. Trump describes the consequences of this deficit as an unusual and exceptional threat to national security and the economy of the United States’. It was for this reason that he began in April to impose additional customs duties on imports. Switzerland had then been applied a rate of 31%.
A few days after this announcement, he had lowered the rates for many countries to 10% and granted a negotiation period of 90 days, until August 1, to find proposals to compensate for trade deficits.
Negotiations under way for some countries
Regarding the now published list-where Switzerland appears-Trump indicates that “some countries’ have concluded or are about to conclude a trade or security agreement with the United States. It was not clearly clear if Switzerland is one of these countries. For these, the customs duties fixed in the decree remain applicable until the conclusion of such an agreement, ‘or until I issue other orders specifying the conditions of these agreements.’
It is not yet known if Switzerland can and wishes to continue negotiations with the United States. Karin Keller-Sutter had however declared the SRF on Wednesday that the final decision is never completely final. We can always continue to negotiate. ‘
/ATS