Trade war appears to have been averted Seco chief calms trade tensions in Washington

Seco head Helene Budliger Artieda was able to prevent a trade war in the USA. Talks with the Chief of Staff of US President Trump's Trade Representative focused on unjustified US accusations.

The head of Seco, Helene Budliger Artieda, has met the Chief of Staff of US President Donald Trump's Trade Representative in Washington. According to a press release, the Swiss delegation was able to refute US accusations of unfair trade practices. A trade war thus appears to have been averted.

The meeting with the Chief of Staff of US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer took place "in a friendly atmosphere", as the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) reported on Tuesday evening at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Contacts with representatives of the new US administration

The aim of the meeting was also to establish contacts with representatives of the new US administration and to explore ways of strengthening economic relations. Meetings were also held with representatives of the Treasury Department to discuss the reorientation of US foreign policy and its impact on sanctions policy.

Switzerland has a positive balance of trade in goods with the USA, i.e. it exports more to the USA than it imports from there, and therefore appeared on a so-called consultation list of the Trump administration.

Switzerland is not unfair

Switzerland cannot be accused of being unfair, said the head of Seco in a recent interview in CH-Media titles. Switzerland has unilaterally abolished its industrial tariffs and there are no pharmaceutical tariffs. US companies could export their products to Switzerland duty-free. In addition, Swiss companies have created almost half a million jobs in the USA with a very high average income of 131,000 dollars per job.

Since his inauguration in January, the new US president has started a tariff war with neighboring countries Canada and Mexico, as well as with China. Trump has also threatened the EU with tariffs in the double-digit percentage range. The Republican regularly overloads trading partners with unproven accusations. In Bern, there were therefore fears of ending up on a US blacklist.