I thought Switzerland was part of the single market. Doesn’t that mean they don’t make their own trade deals, or have I misunderstood?
Switzerland is not part of the EU nor the single market.
We also do not have a single person in charge of the government and our government does not really visit other countries for neutrality reasons. Trump got to talk with one of the women in our government only, found out she’s not the boss of Switzerland (because there is no such thing) and then punished us with 39% tariffs.
The tariff number might actually be a lot simpler and a lot stupider than that. The tariffs were calculated by literally just scaling it directly to the trade balance between the US and the other country. The US has a higher trade deficit proportional to the total value of trade with Switzerland than it does with the EU
This calculation is how some of the poorest countries in the world got hit with some of the highest tariffs. Of course the US has a huge proportional trade deficit with, say, Madagascar; Madagascar cannot afford to buy American goods
I can afford to buy American goods and I bought a shit ton in the past, I chose not to buy anything American anymore back in March and am still standing strong.
I haven’t even used google in months.
I’m aware it’s not part of the EU, but I thought that it was part of the EEA? It’s part of Schengen, so it does participate in at least some of the EU treaties.
We’re part of Schengen, but not the single market.
According to this link, Switzerland is partially integrated with the single market…
We have a bunch of bilateral trade agreements with the EU - but as far as international trade is concerned we are not part of the single market at all.
Which is why Trump imposed 39% import tariffs on Swiss goods, while EU goods are “only” tariffed 10%.
When you cross the border from France, Austria, Italy or Germany into Switzerland you do not have to show a passport, but you have to declare all goods if you cross the 150 CHF threshold for personal imports.
As several NGOs have been saying for years:
Whenever faced with criticism of its closer economic ties with the People’s Republic of China, the Swiss government always points to the human rights dialogue between the two countries, in which sensitive topics are allegedly also discussed. This dialogue takes place behind closed doors though, so it is not publicly known what exactly gets talked about …
Since Xi Jinping was appointed General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, the situation has deteriorated dramatically for Tibetans and Uyghurs in China …
