“Growth in Switzerland slowed down in the second quarter, since the advanced effects in the tariffs have decreased,” said Adrian Prettejohn, economist at the London market research company Capital Economics. “We suspect that the slowdown in the pharmaceutical industry was the strongest after the companies had hastily exported to the USA in the first quarter.”
In chemical and pharmaceutical products, the advanced effects were clearly visible: Swiss exports fell by 5.3 percent in the second quarter. At the watch exports, there was only a leap in April when US importers began to increase their inventory.
Trump had imposed a “base customary” of ten percent on imports from all over the world in April and threatened dozens of countries, including Switzerland, with even higher serves. Initially, he announced an import customs of 31 percent on Swiss goods, then he shocked the Confederates and imposed 39 percent inches from August 1 – more than twice the tariffs on goods from the EU. The Swiss government still hopes to be able to negotiate a lower duty.
