Switzerland will continue talks with the United States, its president said on Thursday, after President Donald Trumpplaced crippling import tariffs on Swiss goods, which threaten to inflict serious damage on its export-focused economy.

Looking for a textbook example of the uncertainty Trump has created with his global trade war – abetted by wars in Ukraine and Gaza – look no further than Switzerland.

Wielding a medieval halberd, the president of the conservative Swiss People’s Party lays out the choice Switzerland faces: a simpler life that the country’s founders spelled out in a one-page declaration more than 700 years ago or a 2,