Switzerland is continuing discussions with the United States about reducing potentially crippling import duties, its government said on Friday, as the country's gold industry warned exports of gold bars to the U.

The price of U.S. gold futures spiked Friday, a day after Switzerland was hit with 39% American tariffs on its goods, including 1-kilogram gold bullion bars.

A Trump administration ruling that gold bars will be subject to tariffs stunned traders who had assumed they would be exempted, throwing bullion markets into turmoil.