WEF: Switzerland treads carefully with Trump as tariff deal looms

The Swiss government is expected to avoid sharp criticism of Donald Trump’s Greenland plans at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos as it seeks to finalise a 15% tariff deal with the United States. Meetings at the WEF annual meeting in Davos are sometimes very short, but high-profile. Swiss President Guy Parmelin was able to talk to French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday. But the most important meetings for the Federal Council are due to come in the next two days with the delegation from the United States. The Swiss president is keen to finalise the 15% tariff agreement by the end of March. “We want to negotiate this agreement to have a certain degree of certainty,” Parmelin told reporters in Davos. “Now we are ready to negotiate, and we want to see if the US is also ready.” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was in Davos on Tuesday, gave a brief optimistic reaction on the tariff agreement with ...