The Business of Trading and Its Weight — conclusion

Conclusion of Part D

Part D has followed the commodity trade in Zug from the arrival of Philipp Brothers in 1957 to the present. Chapter I described the formative years, when Philipp Brothers and Marc Rich + Co. used the canton's tax regime and Switzerland's neutrality to build global trading businesses. It also recounted how the indictment of Marc Rich in 1983 made Zug internationally notorious. Chapter II followed the transformation of Rich's company into Glencore, one of the largest trading and mining groups in the world, and the legal proceedings that resulted in its convictions in 2022 and 2024. The same chapter described the cluster of more than 200 commodity traders that has formed around it. Chapter III explained the business of commodity trading and measured its weight: 27 per cent of the value added of the Swiss commodity trade, which the Federal Statistical Office estimated at 19.2 billion francs in 2024, is generated in Zug.

The commodity trade has made Zug one of the principal trading centres of the world and has contributed substantially to its prosperity. It has also exposed the canton to the gravest reputational risks of its history, from the trade with apartheid South Africa to the corruption convictions of Glencore and the Nord Stream affair. The legal environment in which the trade operates has changed fundamentally since the Rich era: the protection that Swiss neutrality and Swiss law once offered has given way to a system of sanctions, anti-corruption laws and international cooperation that reaches every trader in the canton. Part E examines that system.

In five sentences

1. The commodity trade came to Zug with Philipp Brothers in 1957 and grew to global importance with Marc Rich + Co., founded in 1974, which used the canton's tax regime and Switzerland's neutrality to trade across the embargoes of other states.

2. The indictment of Marc Rich in the United States in 1983 on sixty-five counts, his life as a fugitive in Zug and his pardon in 2001 made the canton internationally notorious, while the legal protections on which he relied have since disappeared.

3. Glencore, the successor of Marc Rich + Co., became one of the largest commodity trading and mining groups in the world, headquartered in Baar, with revenue of 247.5 billion dollars in 2025.

4. Glencore's convictions for bribery and market manipulation in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2022 and in Switzerland in 2024, together with its resolution with the Brazilian prosecutors in 2022, show that the conduct of a trader in Zug can lead to proceedings and penalties in several jurisdictions at once.

5. According to the first official estimate, the Swiss commodity trade generated value added of 19.2 billion francs in 2024, of which 27 per cent was generated in Zug, making the canton the second centre of the industry after Geneva.

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.