Faced with the government’s reluctance to counter high US tariffs, politicians are urging swift action. This and other Swiss news is in our Friday roundup.
MPs urge the government to take immediate action on Trump’s tariffs
Ministers announced on Thursday that they would not challenge for the time being the 31-percent customs duties imposed on Swiss exports by the United States.
“The Federal Council is not planning to impose any countermeasures at the present time,” the government concluded.
Many Swiss politicians do not, however, share the government’s reticence.
Among them is Cédric Wermuth, co-president of the Social Democratic Party, who insisted that “Switzerland must now show that it has guts.”
Immediate action is needed because higher tariffs “seriously harm our prosperity, our wages, our jobs, and the funding of our social security system,” he said.
As for the Liberal-Radicals, they too are urging the Federal Council “to negotiate with the United States as quickly as possible and do all it can to secure exemptions” from the tariffs.
READ ALSO: What impact will Trump’s hefty tariffs have on Switzerland?
Rents in Switzerland keep rising
Rents are expected to increase further this year, according to UBS bank — which said new tenants will have to pay 2.5 percent more on average, while rents for existing tents will go up by 1.5 percent.
At the same time, the number of vacant rental apartments is likely to fall further.
On one hand, this is because people move less as they get older, opting instead to remain in the apartments they lived in for years.
On the other hand, many current tenants don’t move because of high market rents.
In both cases, the result is the same: scarcity of apartments available for rent.
This trend is also confirmed by the Swiss Federation of Master Builders (SBV) which is warning that a nationwide vacancy rate of less than 1 percent is “looming.”
“Significantly fewer apartments are being built than is necessary, the SBV explained.
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New children’s hospital opens in Lausanne
Vaud’s university hospital (CHUV), the second-largest in Switzerland, inaugurated its new Children’s Hospital on Thursday.
It brings together pediatric services which were previously spread across two sites in the city.
Located directly across from the main hospital building, this brand-new facility was specifically designed to meet the needs of children and adolescents (ages 0 to 18) and their families.
“The Children’s Hospital occupies a strategic location in Lausanne, in the heart of the hospital complex,” the facility said in a press release, adding that its inauguration “marks a historic turning point for childcare in French-speaking Switzerland, offering cutting-edge multidisciplinary care adapted to each stage of a child’s development.”
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