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A report released in St. Gallen, Switzerland on the 26th showed that thanks to the free trade agreement signed between China and Switzerland, Swiss and Chinese enterprises saved hundreds of millions of dollars in export costs in 2017.
On July 1, 2014, the China Switzerland Free Trade Agreement came into force. As the Agreement entered its fifth year of implementation, experts and scholars from the University of International Business and Economics of China, Nanjing University and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland analyzed and evaluated the actual use of the Agreement and its role in promoting bilateral trade, and jointly released the first evaluation report.
The report shows that since the implementation of the FTA, the tariffs involved in China Switzerland trade have dropped significantly, and the export enterprises of China and Switzerland have shared the dividends released by the FTA. Among them, China's electronic machinery, textile and other industries as well as Switzerland's pharmaceutical, watch and machinery manufacturing industries have become the largest beneficiaries of the agreement.
Thomas Kasas, one of the report's authors and a professor of St. Gallen University, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the achievements of the China Switzerland Free Trade Agreement are undoubtedly win-win. The report shows that since the agreement came into force, the utilization rate of both Chinese and Swiss enterprises has exceeded 40%. Kasas believes that with the further reduction of tariffs in the future, the utilization rate of the China Switzerland FTA is expected to continue to rise.
Geng Wenbing, the Chinese ambassador to Switzerland, who attended the report conference on the same day, said that the China Switzerland Free Trade Agreement is a high-level, mutually beneficial agreement. In the current context of unilateralism and trade protectionism, the positive significance of the China Switzerland Free Trade Agreement is more obvious.
Mary Gabrielle Inexing Flesch, State Secretary for Economic Affairs of the Swiss Federal Government, also said that the effective implementation of the China Switzerland Free Trade Agreement has created more opportunities for bilateral cooperation and brought great benefits.
The China Switzerland Free Trade Agreement is the first free trade agreement between China and European countries and the top 20 countries in the global economy. According to the agreement, 99.7% of Swiss exports to China will implement zero tariff immediately after the agreement comes into force, and China will eventually implement zero tariff on 84.2% of Swiss exports.
(Original title: Report: Sino Swiss Free Trade Agreement Benefits Export Enterprises of the Two Countries) The opinion of this article only represents the author himself. If the source of the article is a network reprint, this website is an information publishing platform. If there is infringement, please contact this website to delete it in time.
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