CHINA-ECONOMY: SWITZERLAND/FTA
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China and Switzerland on July 1, 2014, signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This is China's first with a mainland European country and was sealed in 2013 after two years of talks. This is China's second European FTA since the one it signed in April 2013 with Iceland. Like Switzerland, Iceland is not a member of the 28-nation EU. The FTA with Swtzerland is expected to facilitate Swiss farm and industrial exports to China's vast market of 1.4 billion increasingly wealthy consumers. China already imports mainly Swiss machinery, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and watches. In turn, Chinese manufacturers will get duty-free access to Switzerland, where their primary products will be cheaper for factories to use.
EU exports to China were worth almost $192 billion in 2013, compared to $382 billion of imports.
Switzerland's exports to China last year totalled US$ 9.9 billion while China's exports to Switzerland last year were valued at US$ 12.8 billion.
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