Swiss official sees good chance 15% US tariff rate maintained

ZURICH, July 8 (Reuters) - A senior Swiss trade official said on Wednesday she saw a good chance that Switzerland could maintain a U.S. tariff rate set by an initial deal with Washington in November.

Helene Budliger Artieda, head of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, said Switzerland hoped that the Trump administration would honour the preliminary deal when asked if she thought the 15% rate it established would remain in place.

"If I would have to guess today, I would think there is a good chance," she said during an interview with Bloomberg in Zurich, noting that Swiss firms were very keen to establish predictable trading terms with the United States.

President Donald Trump hit Switzerland with the highest U.S. tariffs in Europe last summer until the two reached the deal to lower them to the same rate levied on the European Union.

A universal 10% ⁠U.S. ​tariff set by the Trump administration in February, ​after the U.S. Supreme Court declared some earlier tariffs illegal, expires on July 24. Switzerland is still negotiating with the United States to finalise a trade deal.

Budliger Artieda said she wanted to see the Swiss economy growing faster and highlighted energy costs as an area where Switzerland needed to become more affordable.

(Writing by Dave Graham, editing by Ariane Luthi)