Swiss President's 'disastrous' call with Trump resulted in higher tariffs

MOSCOW: Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter had a "disastrous" phone call with US President Donald Trump, after which the US leader announced high tariffs of 39 per cent on Swiss goods, reported Sputnik quoting a Financial Times report, citing a Swiss diplomat.

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After months of negotiations, Trump imposed a 39% tariff on Swiss goods instead of the expected 10%.
Officials were caught off guard during a call with Trump, who cited trade deficit concerns.
The new tariffs affect 69 countries and take effect August 7, with some time left to negotiate deals.

The 30-minute conversation was the culmination of more than three months and hundreds of hours of negotiations, during which Swiss officials believed they were on track to reach the same deal as the one with the UK, which agreed on 10 per cent tariffs. Instead, Trump announced 39 per cent, one of the highest rates in the world, the newspaper said.

Swiss officials were confident that they had managed to reach a preliminary deal; they were counting on tariffs at the level of 10 per cent. However, in a telephone conversation with the Swiss president, Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the deficit in trade with Switzerland, emphasising that he considered 10 per cent duties insufficient.

"There was nothing Keller-Sutter could say," the source concluded.

The new tariffs are being introduced to 69 American trading partners; they come into force on August 7, which may give the countries on the list some time to conclude a trade deal with the United States and avoid raising import rates.

According to the text of the decree, the highest tariffs of 41 per cent are imposed on Syria, imports from Myanmar and Laos will be subject to a rate of 40 per cent, and goods from Iraq and Serbia will be subject to a tariff of 35 per cent.

--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI

TAGS: us tariffs, switzerland, phone call, trump, karin keller-sutter, high tariffs