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The deal would reduce an extraordinarily high tariff rate that had threatened to cripple Swiss exports.
Nov. 14, 2025Updated 11:12 a.m. ET
Switzerland said on Friday that it had reached an agreement with the United States to lower a punishing 39 percent tariff on Swiss goods to 15 percent, a change that will help to reduce the cost of exporting pharmaceuticals, gold, watches and chocolate to the United States.
U.S. officials confirmed on Friday that the countries had reached an agreement and said that further details would be announced later in the day. The lower tariff comes after a meeting between U.S. and Swiss government officials on Thursday and an unusual visit by a group of high-level Swiss executives to President Trump in the Oval Office last week.
The Trump administration put a 39 percent tariff on Swiss exports in August, blindsiding a longtime ally and delivering a sharp blow to Switzerland’s economy by significantly raising the cost of the country’s exports to the United States of drugs, dairy products, gold and watches. The tariff was among some of the highest rates set for any country, which administration officials said was in response to a substantial trade deficit the United States had with Switzerland.
Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said in an interview on CNBC Friday morning that the United States had “essentially reached a deal with Switzerland” that would involve the Swiss locating new manufacturing in the United States, including for pharmaceuticals, railway equipment and gold smelting.
“Their companies are going to build here,” Mr. Greer said, adding that the agreement would eliminate some of the sources of the Swiss trade surplus with United States. “We’ve already seen Roche has actually broken ground already for a pharmaceutical facility in the United States.”
In response, the Swiss government posted on social media: “Thanks to President Trump for the constructive engagement.”
On Thursday, the Trump administration announced four new trade deals, with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador, as it also prepared to announce new tariff exemptions aimed at lowering high prices that have frustrated U.S. consumers.
The tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on Switzerland and other countries have been called into question in a case before the Supreme Court. Officials are waiting to hear whether the court will strike down these tariffs, though the administration has said it has other options to impose levies if that occurs.
The accord was announced just a week after a small group of influential Swiss businessmen mounted a charm offensive with Mr. Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that included the heads of the luxury groups Richemont and Rolex, as well as the chief of Switzerland’s biggest gold refiner and two big Swiss investment companies.
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The Swiss companies had been strategizing for months on ways to see Mr. Trump personally, in the hopes that a soft diplomacy approach would persuade the president to reconsider the steep levy, said Rahul Sahgal, the chief executive of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce.
“Mr. Trump himself is a businessman, so I do think he has a natural leaning toward these kind of people, other wealthy and successful businessmen,” Mr. Sahgal said. “There is a sense of comfort that is helpful.”
The gathering appeared to help break a logjam that started in late July, when a phone call about the tariffs between Mr. Trump and the Swiss president, Karin Keller-Sutter, went awry.
Mr. Trump had already stunned Switzerland with a 31 percent levy in April when he unveiled new tariffs for all U.S. trading partners. Swiss and U.S. trade officials then began negotiating what the Swiss thought would be a much lower tariff, closer to 10 or 15 percent. But the July 30 call with Ms. Keller-Sutter ended with Mr. Trump imposing the higher 39 percent tariff — a number that appeared to mirror Switzerland’s $39 billion trade surplus with the United States in 2024.
Swiss officials, including the economy minister, Guy Parmelin, have since rushed to offer a better deal to the United States. On Friday morning, Mr. Parmelin returned to Switzerland from a meeting with Mr. Greer and said that they “had a very good talk,” adding: “We clarified virtually everything.”
But the foray by the Swiss business community appeared to helped grease the wheels.
Jean-Frederic Dufour, head of the Swiss luxury watchmaker Rolex, invited Mr. Trump in September to the company’s V.I.P. box at the U.S. Open men’s finals in New York. (Mr. Trump has a large gold-plated Rolex clock on his desk in the Oval Office.)
Other Swiss executives then prepared for the next best opportunity to communicate how the tariffs were hurting Switzerland’s economy. Luxury watches sold by Rolex and Richemont are among the Swiss products hit by the tariffs, with watch exports to the United States plunging in September.
When Mr. Trump returned to Washington late last month from a trip through Asia, where he negotiated a string of new tariff deals with China, Japan and South Korea, Swiss executives saw an opening.
“In a very apolitical manner, they were able to deliver a message about what is happening with Switzerland,” Mr. Rahul said.
Johann Rupert, the chief executive of Richemont, said on Friday on a call with investors that it had been a privilege to meet with Mr. Trump and that the punitive 39 percent tariff had been the result of a “misunderstanding.”
Liz Alderman is The Times’s chief European business correspondent, writing about economic, social and policy developments around Europe.
Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.
