Specifics of only putting tariffs on 1kg bars and not other sizes seems utterly pointless. The article itself points out that people will just ship different sized bars to the US instead and re-cast them on arrival.
It doesn't actually say what the new tariff rate will be, so the decision on whether to procure different sized bars / cast before shipping, and whether to recast in the US or just store / sell different sized bars in the US will ultimately just be a decision on whether all of that is cheaper than the new tariff. My guess is that at any significant volume, it'll be cheaper to recast.
jsnell · 1h ago
Does sufficient capacity for recasting actually exist in the US or would it need to be built? If the latter, how long will it take to build it?
I suspect it doesn't exist yet. In fact, the majority of the US trade deficit with Switzerland is attributable to a very recent spike in gold imports. And my understanding is that in turn is a triangular arbitrage trade where physical gold has higher prices in the US, so 400-ounce bars of gold were getting exported from London to Switzerland to be recast, and then to the US.
This was never going to be a durable trade, since the arbitrage only existed due to an expectation of future tariffs on Gold. It probably also was a major contributor Switzerland having just been slapped by extremely punitive tariffs on actually productive sectors of the economy. Good riddance.
eqvinox · 1h ago
> Bullion traders had expected gold bars of one kilogram or 100 ounces to be exempt
Reads to me as all gold bars getting tariff'd.
burnt-resistor · 2h ago
All Swiss 1 kg gold bars will suddenly become laser-cut 500 g bars.
It also might be malicious compliance by executive underlinings to soften the surprise.
elcritch · 2h ago
Wouldn't that be more like 499.5 grams?
eqvinox · 2h ago
Can't laser cut them anyway, you'd lose the assay stamp. Melting & reforming is the way to do this.
elcritch · 1h ago
What about shaving off a gram or two with a file? You know I'd personally volunteer to help them do that to avoid the tariffs.
jmclnx · 1h ago
Or maybe 2 kg bars ?
But this is a rather big surprise to me. With the price of gold, I doubt only the very rich can afford these. Aren't those the people who Trump is trying to enrich. Or maybe the rich do not buy gold, or has another source.
Terr_ · 3h ago
> Specifics of only putting tariffs on 1kg bars and not other sizes seems utterly pointless.
So in other words, it matches the other damaging and/or stupid import taxes the federal government is imposing on Americans right now? :P
Perhaps the ulterior motive is to damage consumer gold markets in order to promote somebody's cryptocurrency?
metalman · 3h ago
ok, I will try and be gentle, but it's going to be hard for you to understand that logic, and reason and most other cognitive processes are liabilitys now,in figuring out how the government is operating, so keeping it simple, tariff=universal whacking stick , switzerland=very nice but bad, little whack to get attention to universal whacking stick
*hint: most other government policy now rhymes with whack
It doesn't actually say what the new tariff rate will be, so the decision on whether to procure different sized bars / cast before shipping, and whether to recast in the US or just store / sell different sized bars in the US will ultimately just be a decision on whether all of that is cheaper than the new tariff. My guess is that at any significant volume, it'll be cheaper to recast.
I suspect it doesn't exist yet. In fact, the majority of the US trade deficit with Switzerland is attributable to a very recent spike in gold imports. And my understanding is that in turn is a triangular arbitrage trade where physical gold has higher prices in the US, so 400-ounce bars of gold were getting exported from London to Switzerland to be recast, and then to the US.
This was never going to be a durable trade, since the arbitrage only existed due to an expectation of future tariffs on Gold. It probably also was a major contributor Switzerland having just been slapped by extremely punitive tariffs on actually productive sectors of the economy. Good riddance.
Reads to me as all gold bars getting tariff'd.
It also might be malicious compliance by executive underlinings to soften the surprise.
But this is a rather big surprise to me. With the price of gold, I doubt only the very rich can afford these. Aren't those the people who Trump is trying to enrich. Or maybe the rich do not buy gold, or has another source.
So in other words, it matches the other damaging and/or stupid import taxes the federal government is imposing on Americans right now? :P
Perhaps the ulterior motive is to damage consumer gold markets in order to promote somebody's cryptocurrency?
edit: more whacking https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/08/new-executive-order-...
(Same goes for Putin and From Russia With Love)