Customs deal with the USA Does Switzerland have to allow chlorinated chickens and Cybertrucks?
The provisional customs deal demands a lot from Switzerland. It is to allow the import of products that are currently not approved in Switzerland. An overview of the most controversial products.
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- The Federal Council's provisional customs deal with the US government stipulates that Switzerland must allow some controversial products.
- Hormone-treated beef and chemically treated chicken will be allowed to be imported into Switzerland.
- The Tesla Cybertruck could be approved in Switzerland as a result of the agreement, which is currently not the case.
- Switzerland also promises not to introduce a digital tax for tech companies, although one is already in place with the Netflix tax.
The customs deal with which Federal Councillor Parmelin triumphed is actually only a declaration of intent. "This document does not constitute a legally binding instrument that creates or affects rights or obligations under international law," reads the last sentence of the document published by the White House in German translation.
But even if this document does not represent the final agreement, Switzerland will find it difficult to withdraw from the promises made. If it does, the US government can immediately raise its tariffs again.
The concessions to the US economy, namely products that Switzerland will have to allow in future and regulations that it will not be allowed to import, are a particular talking point.
US beef and buffalo
More US beef is likely to be on the shelves in Switzerland in future. The declaration of intent states that Switzerland must import beef duty-free. The "Schweizer Bauer" writes that this refers to a quantity of 500 tons. Beef from the USA is also controversial because, unlike in Switzerland, fattening with the help of hormone preparations is permitted there.
Switzerland is also to import bison meat, 1000 tons of it duty-free, as the Bauernzeitung has learned. The President of the Farmers' Association, National Councillor Markus Ritter (center/SG), therefore fears problems for Swiss producers. They may have to be supported financially in order to remain competitive, he explained to Blick.
Whether the increase in import quotas for US beef and bison will have the effect Trump wants ultimately also depends on whether people in Switzerland buy this meat. For comparison: the 500 tons of US beef correspond to around half a percent of annual beef consumption in Switzerland.
Chlorinated chickens
Chlorinated chicken is one of the symbols of US products that trigger fears in Switzerland. In the USA, it is permitted to spray poultry meat with chlorine gas or immerse it in a chlorine bath after slaughter in order to kill germs such as salmonella. Switzerland is to import 1500 tons of US chicken duty-free in future. This corresponds to just over 1 percent of the annual consumption of chicken meat in Switzerland.
In Switzerland, as in the EU, this is prohibited. Chicken meat may not be chemically treated. Two motions wanted to prevent the Federal Council from lifting the import ban. The latter rejected both. The ban was in place and could not be changed. At the same time, Economics Minister Parmelin has repeatedly indicated that he also wants to allow chemically treated poultry meat from the USA.
National Public Radio quotes a microbiologist specializing in poultry who says that less than 5 percent of farms still use chlorine. Instead, chicken meat is disinfected with organic acids, often with a mixture of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.
Here, too, it is ultimately consumers who decide how widespread chemically treated chicken meat is in Switzerland.
Cybertruck and other US cars
Products that are approved in the USA should also be allowed to be sold in Switzerland. This is of particular interest with regard to cars. Some US models require technical modifications before they can be registered in Switzerland. This applies to the Tesla Cybertruck, for example.
With the non-binding promise to approve American cars in Switzerland across the board, fears are growing that Cybertrucks could soon be part of the road scene in Switzerland. The NGO Umverkehr has therefore already launched a petition calling for the ban on Cybertrucks and other "monster SUVs", which are considered a safety risk for pedestrians, to remain in place.
This also raises the question of how big the Swiss market is for the martial Cybertruck and the oversized SUVs with their enormous fuel consumption.
Neither taxes nor regulation for Google and Co.
The provisional agreement also requires Switzerland not to introduce a digital tax that companies such as Google, Facebook or Amazon would have to pay. The Federal Council already made such a promise to the Trump administration in the early phase of the customs discussion.
At the same time, Switzerland already has a digital tax in the form of the Netlix tax. Whether this remains in place as part of the final negotiations depends largely on the willingness of the US side to compromise.
As the Federal Council announced a year ago, Switzerland intends to coordinate with the OECD countries on the taxation of the profits of internationally active digital groups. Trump is also at odds with the EU over the taxation of large tech companies. He is equally fiercely opposed to any regulation of digital content, whereby the EU states are concerned with curbing targeted misinformation and hate speech. For the current US government, this would violate freedom of expression.
Definitive customs deal: Switzerland must please Trump
Whatever Switzerland promises the USA in the final negotiations so that its export products are only subject to customs duties of 15% instead of 39% must be legally adopted or even enshrined in legislation in this country.
Trump cares little about the legal and democratic processes in his own country if they stand in his way. It is therefore unlikely that he has any great respect for those in Switzerland. If the Swiss concessions in their final form seem too small to him, he will tighten the tariff screw again. Possibly even if the trade balance between the two countries does not develop as the President would like.
The trade negotiations between Switzerland and the USA are due to be concluded in the first quarter of 2026. So it will soon be exciting again for Swiss companies.
