All that for nothing. The ultra-aggressive speech by US Vice President JD Vance in Munich on February 15 had symbolically marked the start of verbal and trade hostilities between the Trump administration and Europe – except for the current president of the Swiss confederation, who is also the finance minister. Karin Keller-Sutter, a Liberal, had said that Vance's tirade should be understood as "a liberal speech, in a very Swiss sense." As the only leader of a European country, apart from Hungary's Viktor Orban, to not express shock at Vance's provocative remarks, was the Swiss president trying to pledge allegiance to the White House, in exchange for preferential treatment at a time when the hammer of tariffs loomed over the world?

If so, her effort did not pay off. On Wednesday, April 2, Switzerland was hit with a 32% tariff rate, almost at the 34% level of tariffs imposed on China, the US's primary trade rival. Worse still for Bern, this rate was significantly higher than that imposed on the European Union (20%), while other non-EU European countries, such as the United Kingdom or Norway, only received 10%.

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