Geneva – With the Passover season normally rapid just around the corner, the mood in the Chocolate business of Switzerland is bittersweet, thanks to the high cocoa prices and, now, the newly added US tariffs on imports.
Many Swiss, from the government to chocolates and watchmakers and other businesses, are feeling “shock” about the hardest American position in trade, but many are also taking a waiting and view position.
At the Festichoc Chocolate Festival in Geneva during the weekend, the Trump administration tariffs announced last week were in many minds, although they seemed to do little to sour the mood in the most famous sweets in Switzerland.
Julie Jammes, Marketing Manager from Canonica, a chocolatier gin with three stores in San Francisco, said her company has not yet made any decision on what actions could be taken. “We are waiting for a little more, but it is clearly a shock for us,” said Jammes.
That is combined with the general approach of Switzerland: despite the strong tariffs of 31% of the United States, slapped in the Swiss goods, more than 20% facing exports of the European Union, the government in Bern is adopting a cautious approach for now. But he has warned about the impact on crucial Swiss industries such as watches, coffee, cheese and chocolate capsules.
“An increase in commercial tensions is not in the interests of Switzerland. The countermeasures against the increases in the United States rate would entail costs for the Swiss economy, particularly by making imports from the United States more expensive,” the government said last week, and added that the executive branch “does not plan to impose counted currently.”
The government said Swiss exports to the United States on Saturday were subject to an additional 10% rate, and another 21% as of Wednesday.
The United States is the second largest commercial partner in Switzerland after the EU, a country block of 27 members that almost surrounds the rich alpine country of more than 9 million, and the trade of goods and services of the United States has quadrupled in the last two decades, the government said.
The Swiss government said Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on January 1 of last year, which means that 99% of all assets in the United States can be imported to Switzerland’s tax.
The atmosphere remained bubbly at Festichoc, where enthusiastic buyers nibbled chocolate squares and bit themselves with the chocolate Easter bunny and egg sculptures at the annual meeting in the city of Geneva in Versoix.
Jammes, from Canonica, expressed her hope that the “loyal clientele” in the United States remained faithful, but she said: “I put on the consumer shoes” and realized that a pocket pinched could deter many buyers.
“I don’t see why I would pay $ 45 tomorrow for a box (of chocolates) that would pay $ 30 per today,” he said on Saturday. “It is still a very complicated problem.”
The Chocosisse Swiss Chocolate Industry Association has expressed its disappointment for Trump’s tariffs, although it can still count on the internal market: Swiss are among the world’s main chocolate consumers in the world, running out of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) per year.
“It is completely incomprehensible that Switzerland is attacked by these rates,” said Chocosuisse, adding that he was taking the situation “very seriously” and denounced how the United States measures “hits our businesses and represents a heavy burden that will weigh in exports to the United States.”
Philippe Pascoet, a gin chocolatero, lamented a sharp increase in cocoa prices in the last six months, and said that the US market has always been complicated for smaller producers.
“Trump now wanted to impose taxes on imported products. But it has always been difficult to send chocolate to the United States, only for health reasons,” he said. “They want to control what is imported to their country. Therefore, even the people who used to ask for chocolate online often found it blocked in customs.”
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Associated Press’s writer Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.
