Investments in the customs deal Confederation promises USA 200 billion - without knowing the origin of the sum
As part of the customs deal with the USA, Swiss companies have pledged to invest 200 billion dollars. But the federal government has no overview of how this figure was arrived at - and who is to contribute how much.
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- According to a report in "NZZ am Sonntag", the origin of the 200 billion dollar investment pledge is unclear and even the federal government does not know the distribution or the exact amounts.
- Swiss companies such as Roche and Novartis are said to have pledged 50 billion dollars each.
- Only the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce has a confidential list of the sixty or so companies involved.
Many Swiss companies were relieved when the Federal Council announced the customs deal between Switzerland and the USA in mid-November. It was said that the level of punitive duties would fall from 39 to 15 percent - in return for which Switzerland would invest around 200 billion dollars in the USA.
However, a report in the "NZZ am Sonntag" now shows that Swiss companies have calculated their investment commitments for the USA in some cases in an adventurous manner. Roche and Novartis, for example, have made conspicuously high commitments, as they themselves published: 50 billion dollars each. According to the report, however, these sums have little to do with traditional investments in tangible assets, as the companies also included personnel costs, marketing expenditure and other items.
In addition, the federal government does not know how the total sum of 200 billion dollars was arrived at and which companies wanted to contribute which amounts. Only the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce under Rahul Sahgal, which determined the sum in a survey of 1500 member companies, has an overview.
The investment commitments should be spread across around sixty companies, including almost all large corporations. "The detailed investment list is strictly confidential and is only available to the Chamber of Commerce," Sahgal told the newspaper. Neither the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) nor the Federal Council know which company will invest how much.
According to the "NZZ am Sonntag", the federal government assumes that the USA will not examine the investments in detail. Above all, symbolic signals are more important to the USA. Switzerland seems to be consciously accepting the risk that there could nevertheless be consequences if the USA were to suddenly demand more detailed evidence.
