Foreign Economy

In­ter­na­tional mar­ket ac­cess

Read our po­si­tion paper «for­eign eco­nomic strat­egy of Switzer­land: re­quire­ments of the econ­omy».

Are you in a hurry? Read our shorter «dossier­poli­tik» on the sub­ject (only avail­able in Ger­man)

 

In Switzer­land, small and medium sized com­pa­nies which are com­pet­ing suc­cess­fully on the global mar­ket, are not only to be found in urban cen­tres, but also in re­mote alpine val­leys. To en­able busi­ness to thrive in the fu­ture, Swiss com­pa­nies rely on an op­ti­mal frame­work con­di­tions and the best pos­si­ble ac­cess to for­eign mar­kets. How­ever, these con­di­tions are at stake be­cause of emerg­ing pro­tec­tion­ist ten­den­cies and over­due re­forms in Switzer­land. To con­tinue the path of eco­nomic suc­cess, a com­pre­hen­sive strat­egy for for­eign eco­nomic is needed.

Freetrade
WTO
International competitiveness
Bilateral economic relations

Contact
Dr. Jan Atteslander
Member of the Executive Board, Head of Department International Relations
+41 44 421 35 30
jan.atteslander@economiesuisse.ch

Our Position

  • Global focus of for­eign eco­nomic pol­icy: To di­ver­sify our for­eign trade, trade re­la­tions with coun­tries in the Amer­i­cas and Asia need to be de­vel­oped faster and more deeply. Ac­cord­ingly, we call for FTAs with part­ners like the US, Mer­co­sur, India or In­done­sia.

 

  • Fight against pro­tec­tion­ism and di­rigisme: Switzer­land must op­pose de­ci­sively to any new pro­tec­tion­ist mea­sures abroad and pur­sue its right, if nec­es­sary, by way of in­ter­na­tional ar­bi­tra­tion.

 

  • For­eign pol­i­tics to focus on eco­nomic in­ter­ests: Within the in­ter­na­tional or­gan­i­sa­tions, Switzer­land must con­se­quently ad­vo­cate for its own eco­nomic in­ter­ests on a re­gional and mul­ti­lat­eral level. This calls for close co­or­di­na­tion be­tween fed­eral de­part­ments, shar­ing of human re­sources as well as their ap­pro­pri­ate eco­nomic train­ing in busi­ness mat­ters.

 

  • Faster adap­tion of do­mes­tic pol­i­tics to ex­ter­nal de­vel­op­ments:  Switzer­land’s busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment must stay com­pet­i­tive and ad­justable to ex­ter­nal fac­tors. Within the next five years, the ad­min­is­tra­tive cost of our for­eign eco­nomic should be mas­sively re­duced, in­dus­trial tar­iffs re­moved and basic in­fra­struc­ture fur­ther ex­panded and im­proved. Both ex­port pro­mo­tion and agri­cul­ture pol­icy should be re­ori­ented and aligned to the needs of Swiss for­eign trade.

 

  • See­ing sus­tain­abil­ity as an op­por­tu­nity: Swiss eco­nomic diplo­macy should make use of the ex­cel­lent rep­u­ta­tion of Swiss en­ter­prises in the field of sus­tain­abil­ity. At the same time, it must fight ten­den­cies of pro­tec­tion­ism in and out­side of Switzer­land under the pre­text of sus­tain­abil­ity.
Open Ac­cess to World Mar­kets
Offener Zugang zu Weltmärkten

As an ex­port na­tion Switzer­land de­pends on ex­cel­lent ac­cess to for­eign mar­kets. The main tools to en­sure this are free trade agree­ments and the bi­lat­eral agree­ments.

All Success Factors

For­eign eco­nomic strat­egy of Switzer­land: re­quire­ments of the econ­omy

Our wealth is mainly based on ex­port and im­port per­for­mance of Switzer­land’s econ­omy. How­ever, this suc­cess is not set in stone. On the con­trary, it must be de­fended against emerg­ing pro­tec­tion­ism. In ad­di­tion, po­lit­i­cal un­cer­tainty in var­i­ous mar­kets and the rapid tech­no­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ment is a chal­lenge for na­tional for­eign eco­nomic pol­icy.

Given these cir­cum­stances, how should Switzer­land po­si­tion it­self and im­ple­ment its for­eign eco­nomic strat­egy? This po­si­tion paper places con­crete de­mands on Swiss pol­icy mak­ers to en­sure the fu­ture wealth and pros­per­ity of our coun­try.  

Read our po­si­tion paper «for­eign eco­nomic strat­egy of Switzer­land: re­quire­ments of the econ­omy».

Are you in a hurry? Read our shorter «dossier­poli­tik» on the sub­ject (only avail­able in Ger­man)

 

Voices from within the econ­omy

 

cur­rent fig­ures

 

 Down­load fig­ures

Brexit re­mains a mov­ing tar­get for Swiss busi­ness

In view of the United King­dom of­fi­cially leav­ing the Eu­ro­pean Union on March 29th, 2019 the Brexit-clock is tick­ing louder and in­creas­ingly faster. On March 23rd, 2018 the Eu­ro­pean Coun­cil de­bated the cru­cial points of the Brexit ne­go­ti­a­tions, which right now are at a crit­i­cal stage: time pres­sure is ris­ing as well as the po­lit­i­cal risk, whereas the con­se­quences of Brexit are still un­cer­tain.

This also af­fects Swiss busi­ness. As the UK ranks among the five most im­por­tant trad­ing part­ners, good work­ing re­la­tions with the UK and a clear legal frame­work be­tween the two part­ners are es­sen­tial for Swiss busi­ness. The new dossier­poli­tik on Brexit shows which trade re­la­tions cur­rently exist be­tween Switzer­land and the UK and pro­vides up­dates on the on­go­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions, po­lit­i­cal pri­or­i­ties as well as the pos­si­ble reper­cus­sions Brexit has for the Swiss econ­omy.

Our fact­sheet «Brexit 2018»

Read more about Brexit in our dossier­poli­tik from 2016

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