The fifth round negotiation on China-Switzerland FTA was held in Beijing on May 8-10. The two sides exchanged views on such issues as tariff reduction modes on goods trade, services trade, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property rights, competition policies, trade remedy, and economic and technical cooperation, reached consensuses, and made significant progress.

China-Switzerland FTA negotiations were officially announced by Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann during Davos World Economic Forum in January 2011.

China and Switzerland are strongly complementary in economy, and important trading partners to each other. China-Switzerland bilateral trade in 2011 reached US$ 30.9 billion, up by 54% year-on-year. In the first three month of 2012, China-Switzerland bilateral trade was US$ 6.16 billion. China’s imports from Switzerland were US$ 5.38 billion, and major imports are high-tech products, metal processing machine tools, pharmaceuticals and watches; and China’s exports to Switzerland were US$ 0.78 billion, and major exports are of mechanical and electrical products, garments and footwear.