Trump prices make soft-loving Easter for Swiss chocolate makers

By Mourad el-Touni, Associated Press

Geneva (AP) – With the Easter season normally lively at the corner of the street, the atmosphere in chocolate business in Switzerland is bitterness, thanks to the high cocoa prices and – now – the newly added American rates on imports.

Many Swiss, from the government to chocolate makers to watchmakers and other companies, felt “shocked” the more difficult American position on trade, but many also take a waiting position.

At Festichoc Chocolate Festival in Geneva during the weekend, the Trump administration prices announced last week were in many minds, although they did not seem to do much to embrace the atmosphere on the most famous candies in Switzerland.

Julie Jammes, Marketing Director of Canonica, a Chocolatier from Geneva with three stores in San Francisco, said that her business had not yet made a decision on the measures. “We are waiting a little longer, but it is clearly a shock for us,” said Jammes.

This network with the global approach of Switzerland: despite the high prices of 31% American have slapped Swiss goods – much more than the 20% to which the exports of the European Union – the Berne government adopts a cautious approach for the moment. But he warned of the impact on crucial Swiss industries such as watches, coffee capsules, cheese and chocolate.

“An increase in trade tensions is not in the interests of Switzerland. Countermeasures against US tariff increases would cause costs to the Swiss economy, in particular by rendering imports from the United States more expensive,” said the government last week, adding that executive power “therefore does not plan to impose countermeasures at present.”

The government said Swiss exports to the United States were submitted at an additional 10% rate, and another 21% from Wednesday.

The United States is the second largest trading partner in Switzerland after the EU – a block of 27 members of the country that surrounds the rich alpine country by more than 9 million – and the US trade in goods and services has been quadrupled over the past two decades, the government said.

The Swiss government said that Switzerland had abolished all industrial prices on January 1 of last year, which means that 99% of all goods in the United States can be imported into Switzerland.

The atmosphere remained sparkling at Festichoc, where the eager buyers have nibbled squares of chocolate and lords with Easter Chocolate Bunny and egg sculptures during the annual rally in the city of Geneva of Versesix.

The Jammes, from Canonica, have expressed hope that the “loyal customers” in the United States would remain faithful, but it said “I put myself in the place of the consumer” and I realized that a pinch of wallet could dissuade many buyers.

“I do not see why I would pay $ 45 tomorrow for a box (of chocolates) for me to pay $ 30 for today,” she said on Saturday. “It’s always a very complicated problem.”

Switzerland Chocolate Industry Association Choosuisse expressed its disappointment with regard to Trump prices, even if it can always count on the internal market: the Swiss are among the best consumers of chocolate in the world, which makes more than 22 pounds per year.

“It is quite incomprehensible that Switzerland be targeted by these prices,” said Chocosuisse, adding that it was taking the situation “very seriously” and denounced the way the United States “strikes our businesses hard and represents a heavy burden that will weigh exports to the United States”.

Philippe Pascoet, a chocolate maker from Geneva, deplored a sharp increase in cocoa prices in the last six months, and said that the American market has always been delicate for small producers.

“Trump has now wanted to impose taxes on imported products. But it has always been complicated to send chocolate to the United States, just for health reasons,” he said. “They want to control what is imported in their country. So even people who commanded online chocolate often found it blocked at customs. ”

The writer Associated Press, Jamey Keaten, contributed to this report.

Originally published: April 7, 2025 at 12:09 pm PDT