Switzerland’s dominant position in global gold refining has emerged as the chief flashpoint in trade negotiations with former U.S. President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports. Switzerland exports large volumes of bullion to the United States, helping drive a Swiss trade deficit with the U.S. that the Financial Times pegs at about $38.5 billion. Trump’s team has threatened broad “reciprocal” tariffs on Swiss goods to narrow that gap, but both refined gold and pharmaceutical products would remain exempt under the current proposal, people familiar with the talks said. Gold therefore sits at the center of the dispute: its outsized weight in the trade ledger fuels U.S. complaints, yet its exclusion from any levy limits the impact of the planned duties. The stand-off highlights the leverage of a niche sector that refines and exports billions of dollars’ worth of bullion every year, reinforcing Switzerland’s role as the world’s largest gold-processing hub. Swiss officials have not commented publicly on the status of negotiations, but the issue has triggered a domestic debate over how to diversify exports and lessen vulnerability to U.S. pressure.