Video: watson/Elena Maria Müller
January 21, 2026, 4:06 p.mJanuary 21, 2026, 4:20 p.m
Donald Trump spoke in Davos, among other things, about the customs negotiations with Switzerland. “They paid nothing for the imports into the USA and sold their beautiful watches. We had a deficit of 41 billion. That’s why we imposed the high tariffs. Nobody believed we would do this.” When he raised the tariffs, “all hell broke loose” in Switzerland.
The US President also mentioned Keller-Sutter. The Federal Councilor was repetitive and really annoyed him.
During the well-known phone call after the announcement of the approximately 30 percent tariff rate for Switzerland with the then Federal President Karin Keller-Sutter, she constantly repeated that Switzerland was a small country and that he could not impose this tariff rate, Trump said on Wednesday in Davos.
He replied that Switzerland still had a larger deficit than other countries, citing the sale of Rolex watches in the USA as an example. Keller-Sutter “kept saying the same thing again and again,” said the US President. This angered him, and he ultimately increased the tariff rate to 39 percent.
You can find the statements about Switzerland in the video:
Video: watson/Elena Maria Müller
(cma/emm/sda)