Swiss government ‘not standing idly by’ in steel crisis, says economics minister

Parmelin: Switzerland not idle in face of steel crisis Keystone-SDA

The Swiss government cannot stop a company's structural change with subsidies, said Economics Minister Guy Parmelin on Saturday, the day after Swiss Steel announced plans to cut 800 jobs in Switzerland and abroad.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The government does not pursue an industrial policy targeted at certain sectors, such as steel, even though other countries subsidise their steel mills, he said in an interview with Schweiz am Wochenende.

“On the other hand, the government can provide support through framework conditions and business-friendly programs, such as decarbonisation,” he added. More than CHF1 billion ($1.1 billion) will be earmarked next year for the abandonment of fossil fuels, he said.

The Swiss Steel Group announced on Friday that it was cutting 800 full-time jobs. In Switzerland, 130 of the current 750 jobs will be eliminated at the Emmenbrücke plant in Lucerne. The restructuring will affect production and administrative areas.

+ Swiss Steel to cut 800 jobs

“When jobs are lost, it’s always a drama,” Parmelin said. But it’s not as if the government is standing idly by, he added. “We are using our legal room for manoeuvre, for example in the area of short-time working or with incentive programmes.” But one also has to think about the consequences of the measures. “And if another industry is hit by the crisis, do we also pay?”

‘Cautious optimism’ with Trump

Asked about Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency in 2025, Parmelin said that collaboration with the Republican billionaire’s government during his first term (2017-2021) worked well. Parmelin is cautiously optimistic about economic and scientific cooperation during Trump’s next term.

+ Swiss nerves jangle after Trump victory 

As for the conclusion of a possible free trade agreement with the United States, the situation is much the same as it was five years ago, Parmelin said. “The conditions on both sides are not sufficiently aligned.”

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].