Swiss authorities keep shtum on US tariff strategy

For tactical reasons, the government has refrained to comment on how its tariff negotiating team in Washington is proceeding. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox On Friday, it was still unclear with whom in the US administration the Swiss delegation, which had travelled to Washington specifically to discuss tariffs, was in contact. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) and the Swiss economics ministry also remained tight-lipped when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency about the members of the delegation, further planned meetings, and the negotiation timeline. It was also unclear what possible offer was on the table to abolish the 39% tariffs on imports to the US which came into force on August 7. According to Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter, who spoke to media on Thursday, Switzerland’s beefed-up offer is within the framework of the negotiating mandate approved by the foreign policy committees in parliament. She did not provide any ...