For­eign Econ­omy

The Swiss econ­omy is glob­ally ori­ented: Swiss goods, ser­vices, and in­vest­ments are pre­sent on all con­ti­nents. This re­quires a for­eign trade pol­icy that se­cures full ac­cess to world mar­kets and pro­tects in­vest­ments. Due to its po­si­tion in the heart of Eu­rope, good re­la­tions to EU coun­tries are par­tic­u­larly im­por­tant for Switzer­land. Non-dis­crim­i­na­tory ac­cess to the Eu­ro­pean sin­gle mar­ket with its more than 500 mil­lion con­sumers is in­dis­pens­able for the Swiss econ­omy. As a small coun­try the in­no­va­tion-based ex­port na­tion Switzer­land can­not pre­vail by mere mar­ket power but de­pends on con­trac­tual agree­ments for mar­ket ac­cess. A world of glob­al­ized value chains calls for an as­sertive for­eign trade pol­icy that banks on mul­ti­lat­eral and bi­lat­eral trade lib­er­al­iza­tion.