“Swiss companies have simply told us their investment intentions that they want to make in the US in the coming years,” Parmelin said in response to a statement that Switzerland has“bought itself free”. The Swiss companies would also have wanted to make these investments otherwise, he claimed.

+ Switzerland secures US tariff rate cut to 15%

“There is also no obligation for Switzerland or the companies to make these investments,” he said.

Parmelin also considered it“absolutely realistic” that the Swiss economy would invest CHF200 billion ($250 billion) in the US over the next five years.

“The figures and intentions are from the companies themselves. They have construction projects, some of which have already been approved,” he said.

The targets may be missed by“a couple of billion”, he said,“but the orders of magnitude are certainly right”.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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