Survey Swiss managers distance themselves from the USA
According to a survey of managers, Swiss companies are increasingly turning their backs on the USA and focusing more on Southeast Asia and the EU. This is the result of a recent survey.
06.07.2025, 17:52
06.07.2025, 17:54
SDA
Almost two thirds of 280 managers surveyed stated that their image of the United States had deteriorated over the past year. At the same time, 38 percent rated the EU more positively, while the figure for Southeast Asia was as high as 38 percent - with less than 10 percent giving negative feedback, according to the Swiss Managers Survey published on Sunday.
The reasons for the change in sentiment include new US tariffs and an increasingly protectionist trade policy. Swiss companies are already feeling the effects of these in concrete terms: around 70% describe the impact on the domestic economy as negative. As a result, many companies are focusing on diversification. A quarter are looking into reducing their dependence on US software and cloud services; 5% have already taken this step.
Despite the growing skepticism towards the US, Swiss managers clearly reject protectionist countermeasures. More than half of those surveyed are against retaliatory tariffs.
The representative survey was conducted jointly by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (Supsi) and the Haute École Arc (HE-Arc). In May, they surveyed Swiss companies on how they are dealing with the new US customs policy and its effect on the Swiss economy.
