Federal Council approves mandate for negotiations with the USA

The Federal Council approved the mandate on Wednesday, as announced on the same day. In a declaration of intent on November 14, Switzerland and the USA agreed that negotiations on a legally binding trade agreement would begin "in the near future".

In December, the responsible parliamentary committees were able to comment on the draft mandate. The feedback led to minor adjustments to the text, as the Federal Council now writes. If topics are included in the negotiations that are not included in the mandate, the committees can comment on them again.

In the summer of 2025, the USA imposed flat-rate additional tariffs of 39% on certain Swiss imports. In view of the agreement on the Memorandum of Understanding for negotiations, the USA reduced these tariffs to 15% in December.

In December, it was announced that the USA wanted to have the customs agreement with Switzerland in place by the end of March 2026. The deadline of March 31 was stated in a document published by the US Trade Representative in the Federal Register. If a binding agreement is not in place by then, higher tariffs could be threatened again.