By Emma Farge and Ariane Luthi
GENEVA (Reuters) -Switzerland and the United States have agreed to accelerate their trade talks and are determined to reach an agreement quickly, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter said on Friday, without specifying a time frame.
U.S. President Donald Trump has upended global commerce by imposing tariffs aimed at shrinking the U.S. trade deficit in goods.
Switzerland is among the countries seeking to strike a quick deal to reduce those tariffs, and Keller-Sutter said it was towards the front of the line after “positive” discussions.
“We both actually made a commitment today that the process would be accelerated,” Keller-Sutter told reporters in Geneva, saying she was summarising what was agreed in her meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief U.S. trade negotiator Jamieson Greer in Geneva.
“Both sides are determined to find a solution quickly. That was clearly palpable today and was a clear commitment, including by the American side,” she added.
Switzerland was hit particularly hard with a 31% tariff rate, compared with 20% on the European Union and 10% on Britain, a decision which stunned Swiss officials, who described it as incomprehensible and counterproductive.
The U.S. is Switzerland’s single biggest export market.
Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday announced a limited bilateral trade agreement that leaves Trump’s 10% rate there in place, modestly expands agricultural access for both countries and lowers prohibitive U.S. duties on British car exports.
“The U.S. side was quite clear about the fact that they wanted to accelerate the process with Switzerland. They couldn’t guarantee we would come second (after Britain) but that we would really be in a group of countries that are now treated swiftly,” Keller-Sutter said, adding she could not give a time frame.
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Ariane Luthi in Zurich; Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Comments