Mr Atteslander and Mr Hunn agree with the Swiss government’s strategy of not retaliating to the US tariffs. Switzerland’s David, the thinking goes, cannot realistically take on America’s Goliath.<\/p>\n
But the Swiss are actively chasing other markets. A trade deal with India \u2013 “the fastest growing economy on the planet, 1.4 billion potential consumers,” Mr Atteslander points out \u2013 came into force on 1 October.<\/p>\n
An agreement with South American trade block Mercosur has also just been concluded, Switzerland’s longstanding trade deal with China is being upgraded, and free trade with the EU, the market for 50% of all Swiss export, remains intact.<\/p>\n
So although the US tariffs are already damaging the Swiss economy, and some still cling to hope that Trump may change his mind, there is also a quiet confidence that Switzerland will, if it has to, weather this storm.<\/p>\n
“To be a successful export nation, you have to have resilience in your DNA,” says Mr Atteslander.<\/p>\n
The more long-term damage may be to the traditionally good business relations between the two countries. In Switzerland, there is a real feeling of hurt. The US wasn’t just an important market: the Swiss loved doing business there.<\/p>\n
Many thought they had found entrepreneurial soulmates, more oriented to the free market than their more regulated partners in the EU. Now, both Adrian Hunn of SwissMedTech and Gilles Robert of MPS have abandoned that notion \u2013 for now at least.<\/p>\n
“I lived six years in the US, so I was very close,” says Mr Hunn.<\/p>\n
“I have a lot of friends there. So, this, it didn’t change my view of America, but it did change my view, you know, of how the current administration in the US is acting globally, and treating allies.”<\/p>\n
“I studied a year in the US,” says Mr Robert.<\/p>\n
“It had an impact on me, on my way of looking at the world. How you can take risks, be an entrepreneur, and be positive about the future.”<\/p>\n
But, he adds hopefully: “Even though I’m sad about this situation, we will overcome, we’ll find solutions, and I’m sure in the end reason will prevail.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Atteslander and Mr Hunn agree with the Swiss government’s strategy of not retaliating to the US tariffs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-486920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115346894139875549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486920","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=486920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}