“We are collateral victims of Trump”

Titouan Briaux Chaudet, co -owner of the Bistro The Lavaux in New York, will “not yet” increase prices, despite the 39% customs taxes inflicted on Switzerland.image: the lavaux, new york

Since 2020 and the heart of Manhattan, The Lavaux Wine & Fondue Bar offers Saint-Saph ‘and the 100% Swiss Fondue with New York sores. The economic slap inflicted on our country by the American president forced the small team to anticipate the damage. Phone call.

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Last April, when Donald Trump brandished his first threats of customs taxes against the rest of the world, we contacted the Trio of Swiss owners of the Wine & Fondue Bar in New York, to collect their hot impressions. At the time, Titouan Briaux Chaudet and his associates already knew “that it was going to fall abruptly”, but it was “impossible to analyze this information in all rationality”.

The brutality and surprise of the American president’s announcements had pushed them to step back and not to react under anger.

Four months later, when the Federal Council failed in its negotiations with Le Guru Maga and that Switzerland is officially taxed at 39%, anger has turned into misunderstanding and frustration.

Our interlocutor is well aware that his business is not in Trump’s crosshairs and that he “does not evolve in Pharma or Gold”. For the past five years, the three partners have been running a 100% Swiss bistro with, especially on the menu, their own Vaudois wine production and the products of the Gruyerian cheese caner William Wyssmüller.

The Lavaux may not have the influence of a Novartis, the establishment of the establishment is played on the export of our little jewels of gastronomy.

While the Federal Council announces that it wants to slowly continue to negotiate with the United States instead of frankly leaving the fangs, will our Swiss little people in New York close shop or have their prices swelled to compensate for the 39% customs taxes? “We are not going to abandon our business, but we had to anticipate,” explains Titouan Briaux Chaudet on the phone.

A technique that has also been grabbed by other Swiss companies, Swatch in mind. Filling stocks before the cleaver also allowed them to “do not increase prices suddenly”. Because Titouan Briaux Chaudet refuses to pour into pessimism. According to him, there is still a chance that customs duties are no longer at 39% in a few months: “For the moment, we are content to limit the breakage”.

The Lavaux, which employs eight full-time equivalents, could also expand its offer “beyond Swiss products”, if this trade war with the United States does not fade over time, “but we are not yet there”. Since Domaine Chaudet also offers its vintages outside of Manhattan’s establishment, “it is a question of reassuring our distributors that prices will not take the elevator tomorrow morning”.

“Disappointed” by the Federal Council

While being well aware of the “size of Switzerland against the American giant”, Titouan Briaux Chaudet regrets that the Federal Council has not found “means of limiting breakage, like our neighbors of the European Union and the United Kingdom”:

In Manhattan, Swiss disarray does not tire the discussions of New Yorkers, even when they plunge their bread into a Gruerian fondue. A democratic metropolis “who hates Donald Trump”, confirms the co -owner of The Lavaux. And the Swiss of the big apple, as they react to this economic slap? “Between expatriates, we talk about it a lot and it is the misunderstanding that dominates.”

A problem after another. Once the stocks will be badly started, “it will be necessary to make a decision”. Until then, for the partners and their partners, a “big session” is scheduled for Friday. To take stock. With, no doubt, the fist in the pocket.

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