Switzerland rolls out charm offensive to try to reduce Trump’s crippling tariffs

Swiss ministers are in Washington to discuss reducing the 39% customs duties imposed by US President Donald Trump on Swiss exports to the United States, the highest rate in Europe.

Swiss President Karin Keller Sutter’s initial attempts to change Trump’s mind fell on deaf ears. But the visit from business leaders seems to have changed his mind.

Swiss industry leaders came to the Oval Office on November 4 with gifts including a gold Rolex watch and a specially engraved gold bar from Swiss gold refining company MKS.

For months, the Swiss have been trying to lower the high US customs duties which are already hitting Switzerland hard.

Trump’s response to the Swiss president’s candidacy was that she “was a nice woman, but she didn’t want to listen.”

But last week’s private business initiative took a less conventional approach.

Already this week, Trump said a deal was being worked out to cut tariffs “a little bit lower…I haven’t set any numbers.”

At the end of their meeting, the Swiss industrialists declared in a press release that “our entire initiative was undertaken in the spirit of Swiss unity between the private and public sectors”.

Certain personalities from the business world, notably those in the luxury sector, gold or raw materials, already had contacts in Trump’s entourage.

In September, Trump appeared at the US Open tennis final in the Rolex VIP box hosted by the Swiss watch company’s chief executive, Jean Frédéric Dufour.

The president, apparently guessing what was happening, even asked if Dufour would have been there if Trump had not imposed such high tariffs on Switzerland.

Last week, Dufour met with Trump again, this time in the Oval Office, alongside other business leaders including Johann Rupert of luxury goods maker Richemont and Marwan Shakarchi of MKS.

It’s quite normal these days for a leader visiting the Oval Office to bring a gift.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer brought an invitation from King Charles for a lavish state visit. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered a framed copy of the birth certificate of Trump’s German grandfather.

Requests for confirmation of the gifts sent to the two Swiss companies involved did not elicit any comment from Rolex and MKS.

But days after the meeting, Trump was photographed in the Oval Office with what looked a lot like a Rolex “Datejust” desk clock, produced by the company as a collector’s item and worth tens of thousands of dollars.

A White House official confirmed that both items were given to Trump.

The US President receives thousands of gifts each year, which then become US property, deposited in the National Archives and filed annually by the State Department.

They are finally transferred to a presidential library. Some gifts can be kept, but presidents must pay federal taxes if they don’t come from a close relative.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon kindly declined the gift of a Swiss Omega watch to commemorate the moon landings.

Whatever happens to the Swiss gifts, Trump’s stance on Switzerland appears to be softening, telling reporters he is working on something “to help Switzerland.”

Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin and chief trade negotiator Hélène Budliger Artieda, who visited Washington on Wednesday, are more optimistic than they have been in months, amid suggestions that tariffs of 39% could be reduced to 15% – as in Switzerland’s neighbors in the EU.

In return, Swiss pharmaceutical giants are already promising to build more production plants in the United States. It is also reported that Swiss International Airlines, whose fleet is mainly made up of Airbus, could turn to Boeing.

But will this be enough? Swiss industry is waiting impatiently. The tariffs are starting to bite, with a number of Swiss companies warning they will have to lay off staff if nothing changes.

The Swiss can count on another very influential personality.

FIFA president and Swiss citizen Gianni Infantino, a longtime friend of Trump, was reportedly urged by some Swiss parliamentarians to try to change the president’s mind.

As part of preparations for next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Infantino visited the Oval Office in August with the trophy.

As the cameras rolled, he handed it to Trump, saying he was “a winner.” The president responded by asking “Can I keep it? It’s a beautiful piece of gold.”

Infantino also announced the creation of a brand new FIFA Global Peace Prize, which will be announced in Washington DC on December 5.

All bets are off as to who that could be.