The second round negotiation on China-Switzerland FTA was held during July 5-7 in Xi’an. Assistant Minister of Commerce Yu Jianhua and Vice Governor of Shaanxi Province Jing Junhai attended the opening ceremony. The two sides exchanged views on such issues as ways of tariff concessions, trade in services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)/ technical barriers to trade (TBT), intellectual property rights and competition policies, and reached consensus. The negotiation made positive progress.
The China-Switzerland FTA negotiations were officially launched by Mr. Chen Deming, Chinese Minister of Commerce and Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann, Head of Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, during World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2011. And the first round negotiation was held in April in Bern, Switzerland, by the two sides.
Currently, Switzerland is China’s ninth largest trade partner in Europe. In the first five months of 2011, China-Switzerland trade volume was US$13.09 billion, up by 49.7% year on year. Switzerland is China’s sixth largest investment source in Europe, and has invested most to China among non-European members. By the end of May of 2011, China has actually utilized US$3.7 billion of investment from Switzerland.
