China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement Officially Launched, China’s .% Exports Zero Tariff

The China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement officially came into effect on July 1. After the agreement takes effect, Switzerland will immediately implement zero tariffs on 99.7% of China’s exports, and China will eventually implement zero tariffs on 84.2% of Switzerland’s exports. tariff.
A celebration ceremony for the entry into force of the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement was held on the 1st in Basel, a city in northern Switzerland. As containers from China are hoisted and unloaded from cargo ships at the Port of Basel, and containers from Switzerland are hoisted from the dock and shipped to China, bilateral trade has begun a new journey after the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement officially came into effect. More than 300 people from the political and economic circles of China and Sweden witnessed this historical moment.
Swiss Federal Councilor and Economic Minister Johan Schneider-Ammann delivered a speech at the celebration ceremony and congratulated the agreement on its entry into force. Swiss products and services need a market, he said. The Sino-Swiss Free Trade Agreement means that the competitiveness of Swiss products will be significantly improved; in turn, Chinese industrial products can also enter the Swiss market with zero tariffs. It is believed that both countries can benefit from the free trade agreement and create more jobs for both countries. He also said that trade barriers go against the development needs of society and more people should be allowed to share prosperity. The signing of the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement has set an example in this regard.
Yu Jianhua, special representative of the Chinese Minister of Commerce and China’s Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization, said in his speech that the agreement is one of the highest-level and most comprehensive free trade agreements China has reached with foreign countries in recent years. It not only has a high proportion of zero-tariff trade in goods, It has also established a good mechanism for bilateral cooperation in the fields of watches and clocks, and involves many new rules such as environment and intellectual property. This will further enhance the level of Sino-Swiss bilateral economic and trade cooperation and deepen Sino-European economic and trade cooperation.
Another major part of this celebration is the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement Theme Forum. Representatives from the Swiss business community introduced the importance of the free trade agreement to Swiss companies from different industry perspectives. Rute Metzler-Arnold, chairman of Swiss Global Enterprise, said that it is not only export companies that benefit from the free trade agreement, but also most Swiss companies. As long as the tariff reduction and exemption preferences are actually utilized, Swiss companies will receive nearly 5.8 billion Swiss francs in tariff preferences by 2028. In the next few years, trade between the two countries will achieve a growth rate of 5% to 10%.
Xu Jinghu, Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland, said at the opening ceremony of the forum, “There is no end to Sino-Swiss cooperation, and both China and Switzerland, as well as their businesses and people, will benefit from it. The entry into force of the free trade agreement has special significance in the history of Sino-Swiss relations. Economic and trade cooperation will open a new chapter.”
In January 2011, China and Switzerland launched free trade agreement negotiations. After more than two years and nine rounds of negotiations, China and Switzerland signed a memorandum of understanding on completing free trade negotiations in May 2013, and officially signed the Agreement in Beijing in July 2013. This is the first free trade agreement signed between China and the world’s top 20 economies, as well as between China and a country in continental Europe.
After the agreement comes into effect, it will bring huge economic benefits and cooperation dividends to China and Switzerland. Switzerland will immediately implement zero tariffs on 99.7% of China’s exports, and China will eventually implement zero tariffs on 84.2% of Switzerland’s exports. If some tax-reduced products are included, the proportion of products participating in tax reductions in Switzerland is 99.99%, and in China it is 96.5%, both of which greatly exceed the 90% tax reduction level in general free trade agreements. In terms of industrial products, Switzerland’s products with greater tax reductions for China include textiles, clothing, shoes and hats, auto parts and metal products. These are China’s main export interest products, and Switzerland is committed to implementing zero tariffs as soon as the free trade agreement takes effect.