Pop­u­lar ini­tia­tive threat­ens suc­cess­ful bi­lat­eral path

Given the fact that the Agree­ment on the free move­ment of per­sons in­cludes a guil­lo­tine clause, six other agree­ments in the first pack­age of bi­lat­eral agree­ments (Bi­lat­er­als I) would au­to­mat­i­cally be can­celled as well if the ini­tia­tive were to be ac­cepted. Within a year, the highly suc­cess­ful bi­lat­eral path would be de­stroyed, and Swiss com­pa­nies would no longer be able to par­tic­i­pate on an equal foot­ing with their EU com­peti­tors in the Sin­gle Mar­ket. This would have se­vere neg­a­tive con­se­quences for the Swiss econ­omy and ad­versely af­fect all in­volved play­ers.

The fact sheet (see link below) ex­plains why the ex­ist­ing bi­lat­eral agree­ments be­tween Switzer­land and the EU are so im­por­tant for our coun­try:

- Sev­eral in­de­pen­dent stud­ies show that the bi­lat­eral agree­ments lead to a higher per capita in­come

- The Agree­ment on the free move­ment of per­sons on its own is worth around 14 bil­lion Swiss francs per annum

- Most small and medium-sized Swiss com­pa­nies are in favour of the bi­lat­eral agree­ments

- The Agree­ment on the free move­ment of per­sons con­tributes to­wards job cre­ation, from which Swiss cit­i­zens ben­e­fit too

- A com­pre­hen­sive free trade agree­ment and WTO rules are not equiv­a­lent al­ter­na­tives to the Bi­lat­er­als

- The EU is by far the most im­por­tant trade part­ner for Switzer­land

- The US mar­ket and emerg­ing Asian mar­kets can­not com­pen­sate for Switzer­land’s trade with the EU

Get the full fact­sheet here