Ci-dessous la petite histoire sur la Suisse que raconte Donald Trump dans son discours de Davos.
Effectivement, le déficit commercial des Etats-Unis avec la Suisse, sur les dix premiers mois de l’année 2025, est de 41 Mds$. Mais cette situation de déficit est chronique. En 2020, le déficit a atteint 56 milliards de dollars. La dernière année où le commerce des Etats-Unis avec la Suisse a été excédentaire est en 2012.
Quant à la conversation avec la Première ministre ou la présidente – A woman, and she was very repetitive – on ne sait pas de qui il s’agit. Pour mémoire, le Président de la Confédération Suisse est Guy Parmelin. La Suisse est dirigée par un organe collégial, le Conseil fédéral, composé de 7 membres, appelés conseillers fédéraux. Guy Parmelin est « primus inter pares » du Conseil fédéral et représente le gouvernement dans les fonctions officielles et internationales pour l’année, sans pouvoirs exécutifs supplémentaires
Extrait du discours de Donald Trump
I had a case with Switzerland. Maybe I’ll give you a quick story.
But they were paying nothing. They make beautiful watches, great watches, Rolex, all of them, they were paying nothing to the United States when they sent their product in. And we had a $41 billion deficit, 41 billion with this beautiful place – flew over, it isn’t it nice? So I said, ‘Let’s put a 30% tariff on them so that we get back some of it. ‘Not all of it at all. We still have a deficit, big deficit.’ We have 40, 41 million. That’s a big deficit. And I said, ‘Let’s put a tariff on.’ Different tariffs, different places, you’re all party to them, some cases, victims to them. But in the end, it’s a fair thing, and most of you realize that.
But we put a 30% tariff on Switzerland, and all hell broke loose in. They were calling, I mean, like you wouldn’t believe. And I know so many people from Switzerland, incredible place, incredible, brilliant place, but I didn’t realize that they’re only good because of us. And there’s so many other examples, I mean us, probably other places, but a majority of the money they make is because of us, because we never charged him anything.
So, they come in, they sell their watches, no tariffs, no nothing. They walk away. They make $41 billion on just us. So, I said, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ So I’m going to bring it up, but still would have a deficit pretty substantial, but I brought it up to 30% and the I guess Prime Minister, I don’t think President, I think Prime Minister, called. A woman, and she was very repetitive. She said, ‘No, no, no, you cannot do that. 30%, you cannot do that. We are a small, small country.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but you have a big, big deficit. You may be small, but you have a bigger deficit than big countries.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, please. You cannot do it.’ Kept saying the same thing over and over, ‘We are a small country.’ I said, ‘But you’re a big country in terms of …’ And she just rubbed me the wrong way, I’ll be honest with you. And I said, ‘Alright, thank you, ma’am, appreciate it. Do not do this. Thank you very much, ma’am.’
And I made it 39% and then all hell really broke out. And I was paid visits by everybody. Rolex came to see me, they all came to see me. But I realized, and I reduced it because I don’t want to hurt people. I don’t want to hurt them. And we brought it down to, you know, lower level. Doesn’t mean it’s not going up, but we brought it down to a lower level, but they pay now, tariffs.
But, but I realized that we have many places like that where they’re making a fortune because of the United States. Without the United States, they wouldn’t be making anything. Think of it. Switzerland made $41 billion on us. And as she said, it’s a small place. And I realized with that, I don’t know I was so… because she was so aggressive. And I realized in that conversation that the United States is keeping the whole world afloat. Many places, I could give you six, seven places, just in the people in this little area, I know every one of them, they’re sort of, they’re looking down. They don’t want to see me, and they don’t want to stare me in the eyes. But they’re taking advantage of, everybody took advantage of the United States.
But I’ve been very fair, and I gave them a tariff, and it was fine, but I realized that without us, it’s not Switzerland anymore. Without us. It’s not any of the countries that are represented here. And we want to work with the countries. We want to work with them. We’re not looking to destroy them. I could have said 39-40% I could have I could have said, ‘I want a 70% tariff’, then we would make money with Switzerland. But Switzerland would have been probably destroyed, financially destroyed. I don’t want to do that.