The fourth round negotiation on China-Switzerland FTA was held in Beijing on February 14-16.The two sides had an exchange of views on such issues as tariff reduction on goods trade, services trade, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)/ technical barriers to trade (TBT), intellectual property rights, competition policies, trade relief measures and economic and technical cooperation, reaching a series of consensus, and positive progress was made.

China and Switzerland are strongly complementary in economy, and bilateral trade is developing rapidly in recent years amid the global financial crisis and European debt crisis. China-Switzerland bilateral trade in 2011 reached US$ 30.9 billion, up by 54% year-on-year. Of which China’s imports from Switzerland were US$ 27.2 billion, up by 60% year-on-year, with major imports of high-tech products, metal processing machine tools, pharmaceuticals and watches, and China’s exports to Switzerland were US$ 37 billion, up by 22% year-on-year, with major exports of mechanical and electrical products, garments and footwear.

China-Switzerland FTA negotiations were officially launched by Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann during World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2011, and three rounds of negotiations were held by the two sides thereafter.