Swiss press cool towards US tax deal

The bank deal signed between Switzerland and the United States aimed at ending the long-running dispute over US tax dodgers with money in Swiss bank accounts has had a very lukewarm reception in the Swiss press.

The German-language TagesAnzeiger says Switzerland had had to make unpalatable compromises – expressed more vividly in German as “swallowing toads”, while the Neue Zürcher Zeitungheads its editorial on the issue “It’s not yet over”.

The French-language paper Le Temps agrees. “It’s not the end of the troubles with the US tax authorities, but the start of an organised surrender,” it writes in its editorial. It points out that the agreement is not a political deal, but simply a way to make the legal process easier.

“At best, Switzerland has avoided the worst,...