New blow for Switzerland: the United States now imposes customs duties on Les lingots d’ors One kilo, according to the Financial Times. The Swiss refineries, however, provided exemptions for large gold bars.
Imago/Alexander Limbach
In a letter dated July 31, the American customs authorities informed Swiss refineries that 1 kilo and 100 ounce gold wearing should be classified and subject to a 39%customs right, writes the American daily. The Swiss industry had so far assumed that these ingots would be exempt from customs duties.
According to the article, the 1 kilo strip is the most frequently negotiated gold unit on the New York Commodities Exchange (Comex), the largest precious metal scholarship in the world. This ingot also represents the majority of Swiss gold exports to the United States.
“This tariff decision brings a new blow to the gold trade between Switzerland and the United States,” Times Christoph Wild, president of the Swiss Association of Manufacturers and Precious Metal Traders (ASFCMP) told Financial Times. Mr. Wild added that gold duties on gold would make the satisfaction of yellow metal demand difficult.
More than 60 billion
Switzerland exported $ 61.5 billion in the United States between June 2024 and June 2025. This same volume would now be subject to additional 24 billion dollars, under the rate of 39% applied for Switzerland, which entered into force on Thursday.
“The dominant opinion was that the precious metals recovered by Swiss refineries and exported to the United States could be dispatched free of customs rights,” regretted the president of the ASFCMP. According to him, however, the customs classification of the various gold products is not always precise.
Several Swiss gold refineries have said they had spent months with lawyers to determine what types of gold products could be exempt or not. Two refineries told the Financial Times to have temporarily reduced or interrupted their expeditions to the United States due to this uncertainty.