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Is a free trade agreement with the USA still an option? The President of the Swiss Confederation and the Vice President have returned to Switzerland - a negotiating delegation remains on site. (archive picture)
Keystone
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs has remained tight-lipped about the plans of the Swiss customs negotiating delegation in the USA. For reasons of negotiating tactics, it is not commenting on this, it said on Friday afternoon at the request of Keystone-SDA.
It remained unclear with which offices of the US administration the Swiss delegation, which had traveled to the USA specifically because of the tariffs on Swiss imports, was in contact.
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (EAER) also remained tight-lipped when asked about the members of the delegation, further planned meetings and the negotiation period.
It also remained unclear what possible offer was on the table to abolish the 39% tariffs on goods imported into the USA that came into force on August 7. According to President of the Swiss Confederation Karin Keller-Sutter, the optimized offer that Switzerland submitted to the USA is within the framework of the negotiating mandate approved by the foreign policy committees.
She did not provide any further details on the offer. She explained that the offer could not be discussed publicly. However, the delegation had pointed out in the USA that Switzerland was buying the F-35 aircraft and the Patriot system and was sticking to it.
In an interview in February, State Secretary Helene Budliger Artieda also insisted on negotiations for a free trade agreement with the USA. Whether such a free trade agreement is still an option remained open on Friday.
"Switzerland is continuing to work on identifying and removing trade barriers and is always interested in examining further options to further strengthen trade relations with the USA," said Seco. The State Secretariat is seeking discussions with the US administration in order to find ways to further strengthen the trade relationship.
Switzerland and the US have already held exploratory talks on a possible bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) twice - once around 20 years ago and most recently under the first Trump administration between 2017 and 2021.
The talks were not continued under the Joe Biden administration. Negotiating free trade agreements was not part of the US foreign policy agenda at the time.
08.08.2025, 15:37
