Donald Trump criticises Swiss ‘Prime Minister’ in a TV interview; foreigner’s ancestry-based citizenship bid is rejected; and more news in our Wednesday roundup.
Trump doesn’t know who Karin Keller-Sutter is
As the Swiss president Keller-Sutter flew to Washington on Monday, along with Economy Minister Guy Parmelin, in the hope of lowering the 39-percent customs duties imposed on Swiss imports, it turns out that Trump had no idea who she is.
In a telephone interview with CNBC broadcaster on Tuesday, Trump said that when ‘Prime Minister’ Keller-Sutter telephoned him at the the end of July, he called her ‘madam’ “because I didn’t know her.”
(You can’t really blame Trump; as Switzerland has a new president every year, even the Swiss can’t always keep up with who that is).
He also said that even though “the woman is nice enough, she wouldn’t listen.”
Apparently (according to Trump), Keller-Sutter “insisted on 1-percent tariffs for Switzerland” — as it turned out, to no avail.
“We have a 4- billion deficit with Switzerland,” he said. “Under these circumstances, I can’t give tariffs of 1 percent.”
You can listen to the interview here (he refers to Keller-Sutter at 16:37 minutes)..
More tariff-related news: a huge blow to to Switzerland’s pharmaceutical industry
President Trump said on Tuesday that the import duty he plans to impose on pharmaceutical products entering the United States — including from Switzerland — could start out “low” before rising to as much as 250 percent.
“We will first put a low customs duty on pharmaceutical products, but in a year, a year and a half at most, it will be 150 percent and then it will be 250 percent, because we want medicines manufactured in our country,” he said.
This move would be a major setback for Swiss companies like Roche and Novartis, among others, because they export $35 billion worth of products to the United States.
READ ALSO: What ‘damage’ are US tariffs likely to have on people in Switzerland?
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Zurich court rejects an Austrian citizen’s application for automatic naturalisation
This case is hardly typical, but telling nevertheless.
The man in question invoked an “eternal hereditary citizenship” dating back to the 15th century.
He claimed this right because his grandmother, who was granted Swiss citizenship in 1939, subsequently lost it when she married an Austrian in 1961, since dual nationalities were not permitted at that time.
If she had wanted to remain Swiss, she would have had to make a declaration to that effect at the wedding — but she didn’t.
To complicate matters, both the grandmother and mother were later naturalised. However, the grandmother was not yet Swiss when the mother was born.
The court ruled that in order to become a Swiss citizen, the man should get naturalised in his own name, rather than rely on his ancestors.
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SWISS to resume its flights to Tel Aviv sooner than planned
Faced with strong demand, the airline will resume its service to Israel, suspended since mid-June, earlier than planned.
Initially scheduled for September 29th, the Zurich–Tel Aviv route will now resume, daily, from September 25th, the company announced on Tuesday.
The national airline stated that it currently has enough aircraft and personnel to bring forward the resumption date.
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