Swiss global exports fell in July but those to the United States rose slightly before President Donald Trump imposed huge tariffs on the Alpine country, official figures showed Thursday.
Exports, the wealthy country’s economic engine, fell 2.7 percent last month, dragged down by a 6.8-percent drop in shipments of pharmaceutical and chemical goods, according to customs data.
Swiss exports to the United States rose 1.1 percent in July, but it was a sharp slowdown from a 25 percent increase in June, the data showed.
Trump hit Swiss goods with a massive 39-percent tariff on August 1, one the highest new levies he imposed on dozens of countries.
This was up from a 10 percent “baseline” tariff that Trump launched in April on US imports of goods from around the world.
Switzerland’s global exports had accelerated in the first three months of the year as companies stocked up in anticipation of tariffs, but they fell sharply in the second quarter.
The surge earlier in the year was led by pharmaceutical goods, which have been exempt from Trump’s global levies but are now next in line in the US president’s tariff target list.
Data last week showed the Swiss economy slowed sharply in the April-June period, growing just 0.1 percent as exports feel.
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