WASHINGTON (TNND) — The United States and Switzerland have reached a deal to lower tariffs on goods from Switzerland, according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
In a post on X, the Swiss government said that duties will be reduced to 15% with more details to be announced later in the day.
Swiss imports will now be charged a 15% tariff rate from 39%, with the previous rate being one of the highest imposed by the Trump administration.
In an interview with CNBC, Greer said, “They’re going to send a lot of manufacturing here to United States — pharmaceuticals, gold smelting, railway equipment.”
Greer said the deal has been “really in the works since April.”
The top goods the United States buys from Switzerland are wristwatches, unsmelted gold, and medical equipment, with gold already being excluded from the tariffs.
Just last year, the United States was in a $38 billion trade deficit with Switzerland, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
“Like all the president’s deals, we keep a tariff,” Greer said. “We retain a tariff on these countries because we have to get the trade deficit under control. But because Switzerland, for example, has agreed to manage its trade surplus with the United States, in terms of making sure that things where they have a trade surplus with us — pharmaceuticals, gold, et cetera — their companies are going to build here, so it’s going to eliminate some of the sources of that surplus.”
The new deal is looking to lower the deficit, according to Greer.
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More details on the deal are expected to be published on the White House website on Friday.