Fortune | FORTUNE 08月14日
Switzerland warns its companies that no, they can’t dodge Trump’s tariffs by routing goods through the tiny neighboring country of Liechtenstein
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近期,美国总统特朗普对部分进口商品加征关税,瑞士公司试图通过邻国列支敦士登转运商品以规避高额关税。然而,瑞士政府明确表示,此类行为因美国严格的“非优惠原产地规则”而无法实现。根据规定,商品必须在列支敦士登完全生产或经过充分加工才能被视为该国原产。尽管列支敦士登政府也对潜在的规避行为表示担忧,但高昂的40%转运税率使得这种做法的经济可行性极低。此举措旨在打击包括中国在内的国家利用低关税邻国进行转运的行为,但对瑞士及列支敦士登的经济也可能产生影响,并可能导致美国消费者购买到价格更高或品质稍逊的产品。

瑞士公司试图通过列支敦士登转运商品以规避美国特朗普政府加征的关税,但这一做法被瑞士政府否定。瑞士经济事务秘书处(SECO)强调,由于美国执行“非优惠原产地规则”,即使商品经过列支敦士登转运,只要原产地是瑞士,仍将面临高额关税。

根据两国间的海关条约,瑞士和列支敦士登共享经济区,使得两国间贸易难以精确衡量。然而,即使如此,两国适用的美国关税税率存在差异。瑞士出口商品面临高达39%的关税,而列支敦士登的商品税率仅为15%。

为了阻止此类规避行为,白宫已对“转运”(将货物运往中转目的地)行为加征40%的惩罚性税款。此举针对的是那些利用与自身关税率较低的国家进行产品转运以规避美国关税的国家。

此举措对瑞士和列支敦士登的经济都可能产生连锁反应。瑞士公司可能不得不承担关税成本以保持在美国市场的竞争力,而列支敦士登的经济也可能因瑞士经济的波动而受到影响。美国消费者则可能面临购买成本增加或产品选择受限的情况,例如转而购买来自税率较低的英国的巧克力。

专家指出,这种关税差异会激励各国进行套利行为,即使措施主要针对中国,也适用于所有进行此类操作的国家。这种低效性最终将导致美国消费者购买到“劣质”产品。

The Swiss government is telling its domestic companies that they have not, in fact, found a clever way to skirt President Donald Trump’s tariffs by routing goods through the tiny neighborhood country of Liechtenstein.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein share a 102-year-old customs treaty allowing the 25km-long principality to share the Swiss economic area. But that agreement, which makes it nearly impossible to measure trade between the two closely linked countries, does not mean they are tariffed similarly. While U.S. tariffs on Swiss exports swelled to 39% in Trump’s latest round of tariffs, levies on goods from Liechtenstein are only 15%. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has said Swiss firms cannot pass off goods as Liechtensteiner by routing them through the principality because they would still be recognized as Swiss in origin.

“Such circumvention via Liechtenstein is fundamentally impossible. The United States applies its non-preferential rules of origin when levying additional tariffs,” a SECO spokesperson told Fortune in a translated email statement. “For a product to be considered ‘Liechtenstein origin,’ it must either be entirely manufactured in Liechtenstein or [have] undergone sufficient processing.”

Liechtenstein head of government Brigitte Haas said last week there’s concern, though improbable, of Swiss companies looking to Liechtenstein for ways to dodge import taxes, but the risks are high.

“There’s a fear that there might be some circumvention, but those are subject to a 40% tariff,” Haas said in an interview with Swiss outlet SRF. “I hardly think anyone would want to go through that.”    

Trump’s transshipment crackdown

Last month, the White House imposed a 40% penalty tax on “transshipments,” or the movement of goods to an intermediate destination, meant to disincentivize this particular behavior.

The Trump administration is aware that countries with lower reciprocal tariff rates than its neighbors are incentivized to reroute their products, according to Robert Lawrence, Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at the Harvard Kennedy School. For years, China has used Mexico and Vietnam, among other countries, as transshipment bases prior to exporting goods to the U.S., according to a Brookings Institute report from June. These transshipments are having meaningful impacts: As China’s trade surplus with the U.S. decreases, it has been completely offset by the increase in its trade surplus with other trading partners, the report found.

While the transshipment penalty was meant to address China, Lawrence told Fortune, it would apply to any country engaging in the behavior—despite some experts arguing the order lacks key details that would help enforce it.

“It was really important with the response to China,” Lawrence said. “But there’s always this incentive to arbitrage between countries who are close to one another but have differentiated tariff treatment.”

High stakes in Switzerland

With Switzerland and the U.S. failing to come to a trade agreement before the Aug. 1 deadline, Swiss companies now fear Trump’s steep tariffs could roil domestic businesses, particularly in the industrial machinery, cheese, and chocolate industries. While Switzerland may rely on the U.S. as a key importer, the U.S. may be able to find suitable alternatives elsewhere, Lawrence said, putting the onus on Swiss companies to absorb the cost of tariffs in order to keep prices competitive in the U.S. market.

Liechtenstein could likewise suffer, according to head of government Haas, who said last week that although the principality has stopped trade negotiations with the U.S. and accepted the 15%, Switzerland’s economic health could waver and impact Liechtenstein, which counts Switzerland as its domestic market. Haas also said many Liechtensteiner products don’t list Liechtenstein as their certified place of origin, leaving uncertainty about how explicit the U.S. was in outlining the reciprocal tariffs for the principality.

U.S. consumers could meanwhile begin to feel the impacts of these steep reciprocal tariffs, responding differently to the alternatives available from other countries, should Swiss imports no longer be as readily available or affordable. For example, according to Lawrence, U.S. consumers may now buy more Cadbury chocolate from the UK—where tariffs sit at 10%—despite not finding the product as appealing as Swiss chocolates, but because it’s theoretically cheaper and more abundant.

But these ramifications are about more than just chocolate.

“There’s going to be a lot of inefficiency,” Lawrence said. “Americans are going to buy inferior products.”

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瑞士 列支敦士登 美国关税 贸易规避 转运
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