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Switzerland’s president and economy minister are travelling to Washington to present “a more attractive offer” to the White House in a last-minute attempt to reduce one of the steepest tariffs of Donald Trump’s trade war.
The Swiss government said on Tuesday that President Karin Keller-Sutter and economy minister Guy Parmelin’s trip was intended to “present a more attractive offer to the United States in a bid to lower the level of reciprocal tariffs for Swiss exports”.
It added that their offer would take “US concerns into account”.
Bern was blindsided last week when Trump slapped a 39 per cent tariff rate on the country, citing the US’s “huge” deficit with Switzerland.
The new rate is higher than the 31 per cent announced by the US president on “liberation day” in April, and is set to come into force on August 7.
Keller-Sutter, who has rejected press claims that her call with Trump last Thursday led to the higher rate, had hoped for a levy of closer to 10 per cent as part of lengthy negotiations with Washington.
On Monday, the government held an extraordinary cabinet meeting in which it discussed greater involvement of Parmelin’s department in negotiations with the White House, according to two people familiar with talks.
“It makes sense for this department to be involved,” one of the people said.
Parmelin, who is also the country’s vice-president, is part of the rightwing Swiss People’s party. Keller-Sutter is from the centrist Liberal party.
Parmelin has been vocal since the US imposed the 39 per cent tariff, signalling publicly over the weekend a willingness to revise Switzerland’s offer to the US.
He proposed increasing Swiss investment in America, including in US LNG imports, as part of a possible trade concession package.
The delegation in Washington will also include Helene Budliger Artieda, state secretary for economic affairs, and Daniela Stoffel, state secretary for international finance.
Keller‑Sutter has voiced regret over her government’s failure to reach a settlement with the US last week.
The country held multiple rounds of talks with Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, and Bern had believed that a provisional deal of closer to 10 per cent had been reached.
Trump last week signalled that the US’s $39bn trade deficit with Switzerland was the key reason for the high levy. However, many business groups have pointed out that this turned to a surplus in April and May of this year.
Data compiled by the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce show Switzerland ran a goods trade surplus of $4.2bn with the US in May, compared with a goods deficit of $22bn in January.
It said this was primarily due to pharmaceutical companies stockpiling ahead of Trump’s first round of tariffs in April.
Trade lobby groups have branded the tariff arbitrary, and warned of threats to tens of thousands of jobs in watchmaking, machinery, chemicals, food and pharma sectors — industries heavily orientated towards the US market.
The Swiss government said on Monday that the US deficit with Switzerland up to March 2025 was not the result of any “unfair trade practices”. It added that it had unilaterally scrapped all tariffs on industrial goods as of January 2024, meaning that more than 99 per cent of US goods enter Switzerland tariff-free.
