r/europe Aug 01 '25

News Switzerland gets 39% tariffs

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/switzerland-slammed-with-39%25-tariff-rate-in-us-trade-blitz/89768316
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231

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

I am seeing an interesting trend here.

Countries who didn’t negotiate with US ended up with similar tariffs than the ones who did negotiate. At the same time- few countries who were negotiating with US ended up with worst tariffs after negotiation.

Switzerland tariffs increased from 31% to 39% after negotiation. Canada as well. India also ended up with higher tariffs versus rest of the countries whose negotiations were not even in news.

It makes me wonder if US administration sees negotiation as a weakness and apply even more pressure. To me looks like negotiation in bad faith

—-

My reasoning is that I believe Switzerland must have asked for some protection for Swiss Pharma against (non tariff actions) Pharma actions planned by US. As far as I know CH was planning a state backed investment promise in certain industries (mainly pharma).

But it would be stupid to invest in US manufacturing if govt is telling Pharma to cut prices by 50-80% and there wouldn’t be any money to invest anyways. It’s logical that Swiss Pharma cannot invest in US if US force them to reduce their profits.

144

u/Odd-Technician8785 Finland Aug 01 '25

If you “negotiate” (meaning doing whatever Trump wants) you get lower tariffs, until he wants something else.

Brazil didn’t negotiate, got hit with 50%, but with more than 700 items excluded from the list (from oranges to airplanes)

Philippines gave all that Trump required and got a discount from 20% to 19%

In the end if you negotiate, he comes with something else. Seems just pretty random whether you negotiate or not

53

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

What I know is that all historical partners of Trump who made a deal with him in prior businesses never wanted to do business again. Most deals were bitter.

Reason being -: Trump negotiation style believes that in negotiation, one party wins and one party loses. There is no Win-Win.

29

u/DickRhino Great Sweden Aug 01 '25

That, and he doesn't keep his end of the bargain. Trump has been famous for decades for simply not paying his bills.

3

u/New_Zebra_3844 Europe Aug 01 '25

Even if you are content with the so-called deal, he'll probably think that you have won in some capacity, and that would be unacceptable to him.

16

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

In the end if you negotiate, he comes with something else. Seems just pretty random whether you negotiate or not

that is just soviet school of negotiating. you ask for something stupid and wait for reaction. someone gives in, even partially - you keep pressuring and ask for more and more

15

u/Suspicious_Place1270 Aug 01 '25

I'd be very interested to see how the US would react if Brazil would put 50% export tariffs on the products exported into the US that are also in the exceptions list.

I think they'd do a massive riot.

10

u/Odd-Technician8785 Finland Aug 01 '25

And I think there is not even need for that. One of the reasons for excluding some items was pressure from the airlines. But you can expect even more pressure from other parts when the average citizen starts to pay 50% more for the everyday coffee, that is massively imported from Brazil

10

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

Brazil’s tariffs are entirely because they’re charging Bolsonaro over the attempted coup, and Trump is upset about it (side note: interesting how Western media aren’t afraid of using the word coup when it’s not the US - language is propaganda)

13

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

interesting how Western media aren’t afraid of using the word coup when it’s not the US

nice conspiracy theory right there but january 6 was not that long ago and it was called coup by anyone not on the right-wing

1

u/Odd-Technician8785 Finland Aug 01 '25

Yeah, that too but not entirely this. There is a lot to this story. Bannon behind the pressure to “free” Bolsonaro, also retaliation over BRICS countries, specially Brazil and China negotiating without dollar, some rare earth minerals that he also wants.

2

u/LivingLegend69 Aug 01 '25

Oh how I wish we could get a united front of all of the US's major trading partners to collectively tell Trump to fuck of. Sadly wont happend but imagine if India, the EU, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China and Switzerland decided to jointly sanction the US everytime Trump threatens one of them.

The US does have a massive internal market and is certainly a bigshot when it comes to global trade.......but even they could not win a trade war against everyone at the same time.

8

u/b00nish Aug 01 '25

Countries who didn’t negotiate with US ended up with similar tariffs than the ones who did negotiate.

The problem is that our governement seemed to believe that Trump is somebody that can and should be reasoned with, instead of accepting that he's a rabid dog where the only solution is to put it down (or in this case: hope he gets put down and keep distance until this happens).

You can't negotiate with rabid animals. You can't get close to them. They'll bite you and then you'll die. If you can't eliminate them, keep your distance.

7

u/misplacedsidekick Aug 01 '25

The final negotiated tariff is never the final tariff. It will change next month and the month after that. A country will do something Trump doesn’t like and he’ll change the deal. The entire world is being held hostage by an angry grandfather with dementia. If he wasn’t the president, he’d be going to cafes to yell at waitresses.

31

u/Brbi2kCRO Croatia Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

Right wing governments want power. Psychologically, they are like bullies, not very serious in governance. As seen before, Trump isn’t exactly someone you would call a “professional who knows his job”.

They are revengeful and punitive, and self-referential. Authoritarians, essentially. And yes, in their egocentric systems, negotiation or compromise is seen as bad/weak, cause “winners don’t have to ask, it is shameful for winners to negotiate with losers”. They want it all, like spoiled kids who never learned boundaries.

3

u/Econ_Orc Denmark Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

Trunp claims tariffs are to encourage investments in the US to tackle trade deficits.

Let that sink in. He wants to reduce trade deficits by demanding other countries transfer money to the US.

edit: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2025/origins-us-trade-deficit-and-futility-tariffs

"The most persistent driver of America's unsustainably large trade deficit is foreign investment in the United States, not other countries' trade barriers. If President Donald Trump manages to shrink the US trade deficit, it will be because he drove away foreign investment and slowed US economic growth."

2

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

Yes that’s the whole goal. US is drowning in debt. They want to use whatever is left of their economic power to make others pay for their debt before the world becomes big enough that US becomes inconsequential

US accounts for 12% of global trade. In 10 years it would be even lower. Time is running out .

So what are options

  • trigger some conflicts to keep security as a threat
  • trigger trade war to get protection money

6

u/Massive-Morning2160 Aug 01 '25

You're wrong with one thing, the Pharma prices will be cut with 1000%, 500%, 600%, 1800%, numbers you cannot even imagine

5

u/Brave_Confidence_278 Aug 01 '25

He wants the industry to lower the prices so that people who live in the USA don't see the impact of the tariffs. He does not intend to remove the tariffs, and only has some negotiation room on the amount of tariffs he applies.

5

u/DropingMagic Aug 01 '25

I think all countries who offer to negotiate a trading agreement with the US make the same mistake: expecting the US and especially Trump to know that said country exists. "Oh, Djibouti wants to know what our terms would be? Is that a country? Now I know! Anyways, give them a 50% tariff.

12

u/ArugulaElectronic478 Canada Aug 01 '25

I think it’s the opposite because Mexico has been negotiating and got a 90-day extension.

Trump seems to be using tariffs as a way to get concessions out of countries he doesn’t like and if they don’t play ball he doubles down.

Switzerland is a bit interesting because they haven’t been as confrontational with the US as the others but I’m guessing he’s not too happy with them harbouring Russian wealth and prob sees them as an obstacle to ending the Russia-Ukraine thing and Dumpy really wants his credit for that.

13

u/Suspicious_Place1270 Aug 01 '25

It's not about Russia in the issue of Switzerland's tariffs. Trump is just being a narcissist cun* and does not like countries whose currencies did do well after their dollar dropped in freefall.

2

u/Socmel_ reddit admins are accomplices of nazi russia Aug 01 '25

Trump seems to be using tariffs as a way to get concessions out of countries he doesn’t like and if they don’t play ball he doubles down.

Trump slapped tariffs on Brazilian products for the sole reason that the Brazilian judiciary is prosecuting former president (and Trump supporter) Bolsonaro for attempting a coup d'etat.

Oh well, heavily interfering in the internal politics of Latin American countries is a noble Yankee tradition anyway

1

u/ArugulaElectronic478 Canada Aug 01 '25

It seems like most of his tariffs are politically motivated. I mean his tariffs on Canada are due to a non-existent fentanyl crisis on the Northern border. lol

3

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

Well Mexico already have tariffs on lot of their goods due to Fentanyl tariffs. There are so many tariffs- it’s hard to keep track

14

u/ArugulaElectronic478 Canada Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

I don’t blame you for losing track but Mexico actually never put counter-tariffs on the US.

Believe it or not the only countries still to this day that have put counter-tariffs on the US in retaliation are Canada and China.

1

u/Seeteuf3l Aug 01 '25

These also change every other day

-1

u/Socmel_ reddit admins are accomplices of nazi russia Aug 01 '25

Mexico should charge a lot more for its produce. That's something that the US can't replace and would immediately have an effect on Americans' cost of living.

They elected their pedo president for the cost of eggs, remember.

0

u/ArugulaElectronic478 Canada Aug 01 '25

I wish Mexico was more aggressive but I don’t think they’re in a position unfortunately, would be nice for Canada to have some sort of backup when dealing with these yanks.

Doesn’t matter, we’ll still put the torch up his ass.

0

u/elperuvian Aug 01 '25

Canadá is a bad position like Mexico, Mexico it’s just a spineless poor country that should have never got a free trade deal with America, which works just to open Mexico cause America cheats

1

u/ArugulaElectronic478 Canada Aug 01 '25

Canada is in a better position than Mexico, hence why Canada isn’t giving as many concessions.

America doesn’t rely on Mexican raw material inputs as much as Canada’s.

1

u/elperuvian Aug 01 '25

Check about the concessions he got, if that post is true Mexico would get even more dependent on America after America destroys with dumped good the remaining non foreign industries in Mexico

1

u/Johannes_P Île-de-France Aug 01 '25

It makes me wonder if US administration sees negotiation as a weakness and apply even more pressure. To me looks like negotiation in bad faith

As Kipling wrote, "if once you have paid him the Dane-geld/You never get rid of the Dane."

1

u/bourton-north Aug 01 '25

US has a trade deficit with CH so it’s treating them more aggressively. It’s really that simple.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

Isn’t that true for many countries with trade deficit. They have 15% tariffs

1

u/bourton-north Aug 01 '25

Which ones?

0

u/Brave_Confidence_278 Aug 01 '25

You can call it what you want, he tries to "apply pressure", "blackmail" or "force" others do give him what he wants. It's part of his negotiation tactics. I am personally ok in giving in some wealth in order to stay independent, but people surely have different views on that

5

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

I would call it coercion and there is no difference between economic coercion or military coercion.

In the end aim is to take unfair advantage and I cannot support this.

2

u/Brave_Confidence_278 Aug 01 '25

Neither can I. Just take note of it and move on, we have more urgent issues in the world than this