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GENEVA: The Swiss government said Friday it would negotiate with the United States to try to avoid the tough 39-percent US tariff rate that would harm key industries.

As part of a slew of new tariffs unveiled late Thursday on nearly 70 countries, Washington said it planned to charge a 39-percent tariff rate on Swiss goods, higher than the 31-percent rate that it had been threatening to implement.

The new rate is set to go into effect on August 7, and would also prove painful for Switzerland’s manufacturing and watchmaking industries.

The Swiss government said it remains in contact with US authorities and “still hopes to find a negotiated solution,” in a statement on X.

“The Federal Council notes with great regret the intention of the US to unilaterally burden Swiss imports with considerable import duties despite the progress made in bilateral talks and Switzerland’s very constructive position,” it added.

Senior Swiss officials had held numerous discussions with their US counterparts in an attempt to reach a deal with the administration of US President Donald Trump, like Britain and the European Union have.

President Karin Keller-Sutter, who is also finance minister, spoke with Trump on Thursday.

“The trade deficit remains the center” of Trump’s preoccupation and they could not reach an agreement on a framework trade deal, she said on X.

The United States is a key trading partner for Switzerland, taking 18.6 percent of its total exports last year, according to Swiss customs data.

Pharmaceuticals dominated at 60 percent of Swiss goods exports to the United States, followed by machinery and metalworking at 20 percent and watches at eight percent.

The trade balance was heavily in Switzerland’s favor at 40 billion Swiss francs ($49 billion) last year.

Trump has paid particular attention to trade deficits, considering them a sign that the United States is being taken advantage of by its trading partners.

Switzerland is however the sixth country in terms of foreign direct investment into the United States, particularly in research and development.

Swiss pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis have both announced plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in the United States in the coming five years as they try to head off threats by Trump to impose separate tariffs of up to 200 percent on medicines if foreign drugmakers do not move more production into the United States.

The trade association representing the small and medium-sized firms in Switzerland’s machine and metal-working industry urged the government to take advantage of the negotiating window before the entry into force on August 7 of the new tariffs, which it warned would have serious long-term consequences.

LONDON: The family of elderly British couple Peter and Barbie Reynolds, detained for six months without charge in Afghanistan, fears the worst as their health declines.
“I don’t know if they’re still alive,” said their son, Jonathan Reynolds, who has not spoken to his parents since their last phone call on June 15.
“How would I know if they were no longer alive? Who’s going to call me? The Taliban’s never called me. Who’s going to call? I don’t know,” asked Reynolds, one of the couple’s four children.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his 76-year-old wife were arrested in February along with Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall, who was released in March, and an Afghan translator.
The couple were married in Kabul in 1970, and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan running educational programs after moving there. They also became official Afghan citizens.
Taliban officials have refused to detail why the couple was arrested in February as they were returning to their home in central Bamiyan province.
“They were told by the judge that they were not guilty of any crimes,” said their son.
“So many times we’ve been told two to three days and then you’ll be released ... But it’s six months on Saturday,” he added.
The couple were first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, according to UN experts.
In late July, the independent UN human rights experts called for the Taliban to free the pair warning of the “rapid deterioration” of their physical and mental health, stating that they “risk irreparable harm or even death.”
UN experts shared a voice message from the couple with their son, but he has not been reassured.
“You have to remember their age,” Reynolds, 45, told AFP during a video call from his home in Chicago.
“Are they in danger? Yeah, they’re an elderly couple who are unjustly held ... in captivity. They are not free,” he said.
“Their bodies are not used to being put through this, they’re being trapped, they’re sleeping on a little mattress on the floor,” he said.
The couple’s children have set up a website called Free Peter and Barbie to campaign for their release, which counts down the number of days they have been held.
Since being detained, Peter Reynolds has suffered two eye infections and intermittent tremors in his head and left arm, according to the UN experts.
“My dad has had heart attacks ... he has a stent in his heart. He has had skin cancer,” Jonathan Reynolds said.
“So he needs an ECG (electrocardiogram), blood test, EEG (electroencephalogram), CT scans. He needs all of that,” he added.
His mother suffers from malnourishment and anaemia after months of being “fed once a day in prison,” her son added.
She is “weak and fragile,” the experts said.
The Taliban government’s top diplomat Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the couple had been receiving medical care.
“Their human rights are being respected,” he told a press conference in Kabul.
“They are being provided with medical care. They are in occasional contact with their families.”
“Their case isn’t anything serious,” the Taliban interior ministry said in April, adding they hoped it would be “resolved soon.”
The couple run an organization in Afghanistan called Rebuild, which provides educational programs for women and children.
“My parents have never thought about their security and safety,” Reynolds said, it was “no way to treat an elderly couple who’ve given the last two decades of their life for the good of Afghanistan.”
When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the couple remained in Afghanistan against the advice of the British embassy.
Their son recalled the embassy asking them: “’Why are you staying? You’re on your own’.”
His parents had replied: “’How could we leave these people in their darkest hour? We came here because we love these people, and that’s what we’ll give the rest of our lives to, even if it means we die’.”