I am looking for a US based discount broker that:

A: Can trade international securities, namely on the Swiss (SWX)
exchange
B: Has no or very low (>$50) annual fees for a $10,000 – 15,000
account

To clarify, I am not looking for a broker that can trade US ADRs, I
want to actually hold the original Swiss Securities.

Thanks

I had thought of doing the same, to invest in some of the tourism
companies.

I think the chances of finding what you are looking for in the US are
pretty slim. Also, you really want a european broker... as the cost of
sending money
back and forth is pretty low... and is vastly exceeded by the costs of
poor trade execution through an unnecessary US intermediary.

Various US laws [for example, SEC regulations regarding advertising a
securities offer] seem to reduce the availablility of foreign
securities to US investors.

Unfortunately, for these same reasons it is also difficult to find
european brokers who will take a US account.

One possibility might be to open a swiss postal account.  The Swiss
post office is also a bank and a brokerage, and it appears that you
can do most everything online. I considered opening such an account
once... but while the website and some of the personnel used English
-- most of the paperwork was in German so I dropped that idea.

I suggest reading through the English sections of www.postfinance.ch
and
asking some smart questions (can you open an account for a US citizen?
what are the requirements to open an account in person vs. through the
mails? etc...).

To keep things legal, you need to file a TDF 90.22-1 with the US
Treasury declaring that you own the account and include any income on
your 1040.
You should also learn about the PFIC section of the US tax code.