Many people but by about Ursula von der Leyen, who licked Donald Trumps heel to get a trading deal. She spawned him in his kitschy golf resort with promises to buy American gas and weapons and went home with ‘only’ 15 percent American import rates on European goods. Von der Leyen was welcomed with Hoon. Madame had Europe a “summer of humiliation”.
Well, everything is relative. Look some negotiations with King Trump the Swiss president, Karin Keller-Sutter, yielded: 39 percent import tariffs, just below Laos and Syria. And a huge bowl of shit that her countrymen now turn over her head.
Switzerland is the sixth foreign investor in America. These rates hurt. Trump still has to decide on pharmaceutical products, 48 percent of all Swiss imports in the United States. He often says that European medicines are too expensive in the US and that prices have to be reduced. So there will be another ax soon.
The news came on August 1, the Swiss national holiday. It is always celebrated on the Rütli, a meadow on the Vierwaldstättersee where three cantons laid the foundation for present -day Switzerland in 1291. This time the theme was ‘Harmonie and Diversity’. But Harmonie was hard to find. Keller-Sutter (a liberal who is also Minister of Finance) said there overwhelmed about her 35-minute telephonade with Trump, the night before. She had counted on 10 percent. “This is absurd.”
Keller-Sutter did everything differently than Von der Leyen. She read Trumps book The art of the dealthis winter. She grew up with three brothers, she said, and was used to biting away. In a first telephone conversation, after Trumps’ Liberation Day ‘in April (‘Switzerland: 31 percent“), She tried to talk to him the rates by heart. She offered him Swiss zero rates on American import and suggested crossing the same way. She thought it was a “good conversation.” Then the negotiations started with Trumps ministers. There was a draft agreement at the beginning of July. Trump wiped that off the table, as always. In the meantime, Japan, South Korea and the EU promised him major investments and purchases. They all received more than 10 percent of rates. Switzerland had to offer something very special to reach 10 percent.
American negotiators told Bern that Trump got tobacco of those complex deals with everyone, and just wanted to see money. Keller-Sutter did not get Trump on the line on July 31. Instead of a bag of money, or concessions in their conflict about the prize of American F-35 fighting aircraft that had expanded more expensive than Bern, she offered arguments. Trump complained about the trade deficit with Switzerland. She corrected him. Rightly not, but a Swiss state secretary now received apps from Washington: do something, this conversation is going completely wrong. And so it became 39 percent. The Swiss “Prime Minister” (!) Was nice, Trump said later, “but didn’t want to listen.”
All neighbors of Switzerland received (until Trump again fit receives) taxes of 15 percent. Also Liechtenstein, which is in the honor other than Switzerland and has a free trade agreement with the EU. Painful for the Eurosceptic Swiss. This week Keller-Sutter decided to try a ‘von der Leyen’. She traveled to Washington to change Trump. A radical-right minister who wants to buy large parties of American beef went. But Keller-Sutter did not get any further than Minister Rubio. Worse: Trump announced rates on gold bars that serve Swiss smelters heavily. In the meantime, Swiss politicians, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders are arguing about the rug. Some want to use FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, An acquaintance of Trump that is not very popular In BundesBern. Keller-Sutter gets widely pitch and feathers.
Anyway, Switzerland has been around for almost 750 years and will survive. Everyone closes the ranks and next year there will be a new president. But imagine one second that Von der Leyen had done what Keller-Sutter did. Then 27 governments would have brought her and the pandemonium would have been in Europe. That had only been a summer of humiliation.