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Switzerland reels from US tariff shock
Its small size and neutrality proved to be no shield
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The humbling reality is that maybe this is not a negotiation after all but a test of strength as US economic policy goes full-on mercantilist.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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Lionel Laurent
After the European Union, it’s now Switzerland’s turn to bemoan humiliation and surrender at the hands of the Trump administration. Politicians and companies are reeling from the shock of a new tariff of 39 per cent, well above the EU’s 15 per cent, which could cost the country 1 per cent of its gross domestic product.
For Swiss drugmakers like Novartis, the stay of execution granted to the sector feels temporary, with a possible 25 per cent pharmaceutical tariff to come if no deal is done. Local media have compared it with the Swiss defeat at Marignano at the hands of the French in 1515.
