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The United States will slash its tariffs on goods from Switzerland to 15 percent from a crippling 39 percent under a new framework trade agreement that includes a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200bn into the US by the end of 2028, the Swiss government has said.

The announcement by Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin on Friday brings the US tariff rate on Swiss goods in line with those from the European Union (EU). Parmelin told a news conference that the tariff reduction would provide relief for about 40 percent of Switzerland’s total exports.

The US, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, which is part of the deal, aim to conclude negotiations to finalise their trade deal by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said in a statement on Friday as the two nations announced their framework agreement.

The lower tariff rate is likely to be activated within “days, weeks,” as soon as the US customs processing systems can be adjusted, said Helene Budliger Artieda, director of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

She added that a large portion of Swiss investments in US production would come from the pharmaceuticals and life sciences sectors, but declined to provide specifics. Pharmaceuticals is by far the largest export sector from Switzerland to the US.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC the deal would involve Switzerland shifting “a lot of manufacturing here to the United States – pharmaceuticals, gold smelting, railway equipment. So we’re really excited about that deal and what that means for American manufacturing.”

The deal guarantees a 15 percent tariff ceiling for Swiss drugmakers, including Roche and Novartis from US President Donald Trump’s forthcoming Section 232 national security duties for the sector, which could reach 100 percent for certain patented drugs.

Parmelin said the 15 percent cap would also apply to other future Section 232 duties, including semiconductors, putting it on the same footing as the EU.

“The risk of much higher sector-specific tariffs is therefore ruled out,” Parmelin added.

In a statement, the Swiss government said the deal will reduce Swiss import duties on US industrial products, fish and seafood and agricultural products “that Switzerland considers non-sensitive”.

Switzerland will grant the US duty-free bilateral tariff quotas on 500 tonnes of beef, 1,000 tonnes of bison meat and 1,500 tonnes of poultry meat, the government said.

Level playing field with the EU

Swiss industrial groups welcomed the deal, saying it would put them on a level playing field with competitors from the EU, which agreed to a 15 percent tariff on EU exports to the US.

“For the industrial sector, which was subject to a 39 percent tariff since August 1, this is good news. For the first time, we have the same conditions in the US market as our European competitors,” said Nicola Tettamanti, president of Swissmechanic, which represents small and medium-sized manufacturers.

“It’s a great relief on tariffs, but additional economic burdens and risks for Switzerland remain,” said Hans Gersbach, a director of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich.

Switzerland’s machinery, precision instruments, watchmaking, and food sectors, which export to the US, would see the most relief, Gersbach said.

KOF forecasts Swiss economic growth of 0.9 percent in 2026, but this would exceed 1 percent with the lower tariff rate, he added.

Nadia Gharbi, an economist at Swiss bank Pictet, said the tariff reduction removed the main downside risks for the country’s economy and represents a clearly positive development for Swiss industries and for the overall growth outlook.

“Under the previous tariff regime, Switzerland suffered a significant loss of competitiveness — not only because of the strength of the Swiss franc, but also because neighbouring European economies were subject to tariffs of only around 15 percent,” she said.

Swiss industry on Friday reported a 14 percent fall in exports to the US during the three months through September, technology industry association Swissmem said, while machine tool makers saw shipments slump 43 percent.

Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib has introduced a resolution in the United States Congress to recognise Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza as a genocide.

While the proposal released on Friday has little chance of passing in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, it underscores the growing criticism of Israel in US politics.

If the resolution did pass, it would officially recognise that “Israel has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza” and call for an end to the transfer of weapons suspected of being used to commit atrocities to the US ally.

The bill also backs “facilitating investigations and domestic proceedings and taking action, including imposing targeted, lawful sanctions, with respect to the State of Israel”.

The resolution has been co-sponsored by 20 other Democratic members of Congress, including some prominent legislators.

Key progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, potential presidential candidate Ro Khanna, and Gen Z Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who is seen as a rising star in the party, are backing the measure.

The resolution comes as the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that granted Israel $3.8bn in US military aid annually is set to expire next year – likely renewing the debate over the assistance as Israeli officials seek a new package.

Over the past two years, the US government provided additional assistance to Israel to help fund the war on Gaza – totalling more than $21bn.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, including at least 20,000 children, and turned most of the territory into rubble.

Throughout the war, Israel imposed a blockade on aid to Gaza, sparking a deadly famine in the enclave.

Even after a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect last month, Israel has continued to restrict the entry of food and fuel to Gaza. The Israeli military has also been carrying out air strikes and shootings in Gaza daily in violation of the truce.

Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, said the genocide in Gaza is ongoing.

“Since the so-called ‘ceasefire’ was announced, Israeli forces haven’t stopped killing Palestinians,” the congresswoman said in a statement on Friday..

“Impunity only enables more atrocity. As our government continues to send a blank check for war crimes and ethnic cleansing, Palestinian children’s smiles are extinguished by bombs and bullets that say ‘made in the USA’.”

United Nations investigators and leading rights groups – including Amnesty International and Israel’s B’Tselem – have concluded that the Israeli offensive is a genocide.

A UN convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Genocidal acts include killing and injuring members of the targeted group, preventing births and imposing “conditions of life calculated to bring about” the physical destruction of the group.

Tlaib’s resolution quotes public statements by Israeli political and military officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog – calling for mass violence and collective punishment against Palestinians.

“This place will be a fallow land. They will not be able to live here,” Colonel Erez Eshel said in November 2023.

Despite the growing consensus among rights experts that the war in Gaza is a genocide, only a fraction of Congress members have adopted the label when describing the Israeli offensive.

In addition to the 21 House Democrats backing the resolution, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and progressive Senator Bernie Sanders have also accused Israel of genocide.

Experts say the description is important because the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide invokes a global responsibility to stop the atrocities and hold the perpetrators responsible.

More than 100 rights groups have endorsed Tlaib’s congressional proposal.

“This resolution is an important step towards recognising Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip for what they are – genocide,” Elizabeth Rghebi, Middle East advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

“The US ratified the Genocide Convention, which imposes a duty on states to prevent and punish the crime. Amnesty International calls on all members of Congress to urgently support this resolution and ensure the US begins taking the actions necessary to prevent and punish Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”