Swiss Foreign Economic Policy: Key Challenges with a Focus on US Trade Protectionist Measures

Abstract

Switzerland needs to be highly competitive and to have a very good access to foreign markets in order to remain attractive for investors. Over the past decades, Swiss foreign economic policy has put a major emphasis on the multilateral level —GATT, WTO—. With the European Union, a very close integration has been achieved. Besides, a broad network of free trade agreements has been established around the world. Nowadays, strong headwinds threaten the status quo and new liberalization steps face complex issues. In addition, US protectionism under President Trump’s America First policy has an increasingly negative impact on the world economy. US actions further deploy growing collateral effects for Swiss firms as the EU and other partner states take precautionary measures and retaliate.