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Interview: Swiss businesses look to benefit from flourishing EU-China trade, says SCCC president
23 Feb 2021

 

China overtook the United States to become the EU's top trading partner for the first time last year, the Eurostat said on Monday.

 

Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce Sutter President Felix Sutter said that Switzerland would be ideally positioned economically and geographically as "a landing place for Chinese organizations."

 

The president of the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) said on Thursday that Swiss companies would stand to benefit from China becoming the European Union's (EU) top trading partner.

 

"With 2021 being the year of the coronavirus pandemic recovery, I expect some statistics to change again," Felix Sutter, who has been the chamber's president since 2015, told Xinhua.

 

"In 2020 the personal protective equipment (PPE) industry had an impact on statistics. In 2021 the pharmaceutical industries will have an oversized impact as well," Sutter said, "Furthermore, many affected SME's (small and medium-sized enterprises) and MNC's (multinational companies) began to address supply chain challenges and may start to source regionally rather than from far away places."

 

China overtook the United States to become the EU's top trading partner for the first time last year, the EU's statistical office Eurostat said on Monday.

 

Sutter said that Switzerland would be ideally positioned economically and geographically as "a landing place for Chinese organizations."

 

Since 2010, China has been Switzerland's biggest trading partner in Asia and its third largest globally after the EU and the U.S. The two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) that entered into force on July 1, 2014.

 

FTA "OF REAL IMPORTANCE"

 

"The FTA was and is of real importance," Sutter said. "It highlighted the good and long-term relationship between Switzerland and China. The results speak for themselves. Trade has increased and the percentage of the increase is higher than with countries that have no such FTA."

 

"Of course, there are always areas of improvement and therefore it is important to have the FTA reviewed and updated in the areas that could benefit both countries and where other treaties would require an upgrade," he said.

 

According to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration, bilateral trade between China and Switzerland totaled 33 billion Swiss francs (36.8 billion U.S. dollars) last year, down by 9.7 percent compared to 2019.

 

Switzerland's imports from China, meanwhile, rose by 10.1 percent to 16.6 billion Swiss francs in 2020, while exports to China dropped by 23.7 percent to 16.4 billion Swiss francs due to the pandemic.

 

INVESTMENT AGREEMENT

 

Last December, China and the EU announced that the two sides had completed the negotiations on a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) as scheduled. Sutter said the deal could offer fresh opportunities for Swiss as well as Chinese firms.

 

"For Swiss companies with subsidiaries and branches in the EU, this is good news as they can utilize the new agreement, and the same is true for Chinese companies active in the EU and Switzerland."

 

The Swiss government is currently working on a new strategy covering its past, current and future bilateral relationship with China, which it plans to publish in spring.

 

Asked about his expectations, Sutter said: "While this is a political process and document, the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce is non-political and focuses on the expansion of cooperation between the two nations economic actors."

 

"With the importance of Europe rising for the Chinese economy, Switzerland and its economy can be expected to play an even more important role in the future." (1 Swiss franc = 1.11 U.S. dollars)

 

Source: Xinhua