RSI Television News interview with the president of the Tepoorten Group, Marco Oliver Tepoorten, broadcast on 3 April 2025. At Franzosini's operational headquarters, between active terminals and real-time tracking, two containers are on their way to the United States: one bound for the port of New York, the other destined for Houston.
Customs paperwork has already been submitted, but a sudden change threatens to upset everything: the introduction of a 31% tariff on Swiss goods by the US administration. An announced measure, yet a bitter one for those working in daily logistics. No operational notice, no gradual adjustment. Just a unilateral decision that risks inflating costs and uncertainties, hitting not only large exporters but also the many Swiss SMEs that entrust their shipments to Atlantic ports.
The impact is immediate. At Franzosini, a company active for over a century with 70 employees and CHF 35 million in turnover, the effect is tangible. US-bound traffic does not represent the main share — around CHF 1.5 million per year — but it is strategic for clients in the industrial, medical and fashion sectors. Today those clients are calling, wanting answers.
'We have containers that left while the regulations were changing. They will arrive in a different America from the one they were expected in,' comments Marco Oliver Tepoorten. 'This is the kind of situation where every hour counts, and where knowing where the goods are is no longer enough: you need to know where international trade policy stands.'