As noted in a publication by the portal Swissinfo.ch, last year (2016) the average rate of such a tariff was 30.8%, and for some special types of meat, vegetables, and especially dairy products, the tariff could be as high as 100%. This is stated, in particular, in one of the recent reports issued by the WTO. However, why go far? Let's just go online and 'google' the menus of Swiss and German restaurants. We guarantee you an unforgettable 'trip'.
For example, a 200-gram rump steak (cut from the so-called rump, the hip part of the carcass) prepared according to a recipe typical of Kentucky, in a restaurant at Zurich International Airport will cost (including side dish) 37.5 francs or about 34.4 euros, while just across the border, in the German city of Singen, 250 grams of Argentine rump steak will cost 20.90 euros (22.90 francs). The numbers speak for themselves.
According to the World Trade Organization, the reason is astronomically high Swiss import tariffs on meat. Initially, this measure was adopted to protect local farmers from foreign competition, given that the average Swiss farmer has much less land at his disposal than his European colleague, who can benefit from industrial methods of agricultural production.
However, not everyone in Switzerland is ready to 'understand the situation' of local farmers. Some hotel and restaurant owners have even recently begun to form something like consumer cooperatives to jointly purchase raw materials and food wholesale from neighboring European countries. Meanwhile, according to the European statistical office Eurostat, some types of food in Switzerland cost 78% more than in neighboring EU countries, which, in turn, is again linked to excessively high customs tariffs on imported meat and meat products.
At the same time, according to the same Eurostat, market liberalization leads to a sharp drop in prices for some goods. This is happening, for example, in the field of home electronics, for which the Swiss even have the fortune to pay on average 2% less than Europeans.
The Swiss authorities themselves remain calm, seeing no big problem in all this: high prices for goods and services in Switzerland are fully compensated by high salaries and the willingness of consumers to consciously pay a little more but get guaranteed quality.