Ahead of the announcement of the new duties, a "catastrophic" dialogue took place between US President Donald Trump and Swiss leader Karin Keller-Zutter. This was reported on August 3 by the Financial Times (FT) newspaper.
"Late on Thursday evening, Keller-Sutter had a "disastrous" phone conversation with Donald Trump," the newspaper writes.
Swiss officials spent more than three months and hundreds of hours negotiating, believing that they were close to concluding an agreement with a 10% duty, like the UK's. However, after a 30-minute conversation, on Switzerland's national day, Trump announced the introduction of a 39 percent duty, which is one of the highest rates in the world.
Swiss media have sharply criticized Keller-Zutter, calling the failed negotiations her "biggest failure" and saying it was the biggest defeat for Switzerland since the battle with the French in 1515.
The Swiss leader announced on July 31 that the country had failed to reach a trade agreement with the United States.
