Compared to July, Switzerland exported 8.6% fewer watches. <\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — The highest US tariff among developed nations dealt a severe blow to Swiss exports, according to the first reading since the 39% levy took effect.<\/p>\n
Foreign sales to America, adjusted for seasonal swings, were 22% lower in August than in July, Swiss customs data showed Thursday. Imports from the world\u2019s biggest economy held steady.<\/p>\n
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That narrowed the US trade deficit with Switzerland to 2.06 billion francs ($2.6 billion) \u2014 from 2.93 billion francs the previous month \u2014 the second lowest reading since 2020.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That gap in goods trade was the reason for US President Donald Trump\u2019s Aug. 1 announcement of the tariff, which took effect on Aug. 8.<\/p>\n
A last-ditch attempt by the Swiss government to sway him proved unsuccessful, though talks have continued since and Bern is still pushing to secure a lower rate. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last week that Washington will \u201cprobably get a deal done with Switzerland\u201d \u2014 though he didn\u2019t provide details.<\/p>\n
Negotiations with Washington are a balancing act for Swiss negotiators, especially on the issue of agriculture which is domestically sensitive due to a belief in self-reliance. In an interview on Wednesday, the head of the Swiss farmers\u2019 lobby rejected ideas to allow American producers to import more beef or poultry.<\/p>\n
Overall, Swiss exports were largely unfazed by the hit to US trade. Higher shipments to European countries \u2014 including France, Austria and Poland \u2014 as well as Canada and Mexico helped to offset the dent, resulting in retreat of just 1% from a month earlier.<\/p>\n
Goods on which the US tariff applies saw significant declines. Compared to July, Switzerland exported 8.6% fewer watches. Pharmaceuticals \u2014 so far exempt from the levy \u2014 saw a 1.3% decrease.<\/p>\n
While the Swiss economy has shown resilience so far, the government said that it expects slower growth this year due to the US levies. Switzerland is trying to diversify its dependencies, including with a new free trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc that was signed this week.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Kristian Siedenburg.<\/p>\n
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\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Compared to July, Switzerland exported 8.6% fewer watches. (Bloomberg) — The highest US tariff among developed nations dealt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[3662,147200,2600,49,978,86286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-433123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-swiss-exports","10":"tag-switzerland","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-us-trade-deficit","14":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115224183263749903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}