US President Donald Trump has used Switzerland as an example of the logic behind his tariff policy. The country is only successful because of the USA.
02/11/2026, 03:3102/11/2026, 09:15
The prosperity of countries like Switzerland is based on the fact that the USA allows “them to exclude us,” he told US broadcaster Fox Business. When you think of Switzerland, you think of an “ultra perfect” country, Trump said in the interview broadcast on Tuesday evening (local time). However, it is only that way because the USA allows it to make a lot of money, said the US President. He could name 40 other countries where this was also the case.
In the conversation, Trump again mentioned the trade deficit with Switzerland of $40 billion. Trump also revisited last summer’s telephone conversation with then-Federal President Karin Keller-Sutter. The US President said he believed it was the “Prime Minister” he spoke to.
As in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos GR in January, he mentioned how repetitive Keller-Sutter was. She emphasized several times that Switzerland is a small country. “I couldn’t get her off the phone,” Trump said. Instead of a reduction, he raised US import tariffs to 39 percent.
The finance department relies on the population’s classification
In the fall, renewed negotiations led to an easing of the situation. Among other things, a controversial visit by Swiss business representatives who brought Trump expensive gifts led to a reduction in tariffs to 15 percent.
Switzerland now likes to use Donald Trump as an example.Image: keystone
At the WEF, the US President said that he had lowered the tariff rate because he did not want to harm the people in Switzerland. Similar to his interview with the US broadcaster, he emphasized at the WEF that Switzerland would earn “nothing at all” without the USA. In response to a query from the Keystone-SDA news agency at the time, the Federal Department of Finance, headed by Keller-Sutter, said it assumed that the Swiss population would correctly classify Trump’s speech.
Investments are part of the tariff deal
For the US President himself, his tariff policy is apparently working. Since then, many companies that didn’t want to pay the tariffs have moved production to the United States, he told Fox Business. The Swiss pharmaceutical companies Roche and Novartis, for example, also want to invest billions in new plants in the USA.
The investments are part of the tariff deal reached with the Trump administration in November, which also includes $200 billion in investments by Swiss companies in the United States. In return, the US punitive tariff on numerous goods is to be reduced from 39 percent to 15 percent.
However, Trump seems to ignore the negative consequences of the policy, such as persistent inflation or more difficult conditions for companies already based in the USA.
(sda/con)