Trade talks between China and Switzerland are stalling due to legal issues, Swiss newspapers report
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
GENEVA, May 29 (Reuters) – Switzerland’s efforts to renew its free trade agreement with China have stalled as Bern takes a more critical view of Beijing’s human rights record, Swiss newspapers reported on Sunday.
Switzerland and China signed a free trade agreement in 2013, Beijing’s first such agreement with an economy in continental Europe. The move was designed as a mutually beneficial pact aimed at contributing to increased trade between the two economies.
Switzerland has attempted to update the deal to extend tariff reductions to more Swiss products and add sustainability features to the deal. However, Beijing is not intervening, the newspapers said.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
“So far, it has not been possible to agree on a common list of topics that should be deepened,” the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) told the newspaper “SonntagsBlick”.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of working hours on Sunday.
The NZZ am Sonntag, headlined “The Chinese dead end,” said Switzerland had become more critical of China’s human rights record.
A Swiss parliamentary initiative recently passed by the National Council’s Legal Commission denounced the forced labor of Uyghurs in north-west China as “a real problem”.
Western states and human rights groups have accused Xinjiang authorities of detaining Uyghurs and other minorities in camps and torturing them. Beijing rejects the allegations and describes the camps as training centers for combating religious extremism. Continue reading
Jean-Philippe Kohl, head of economic policy at industry association Swissmem, told NZZ am Sonntag that Switzerland should engage in quiet diplomacy on China’s human rights record.
“If we, as a small economy, keep pointing the finger at China, nothing will change except that ties will eventually collapse,” he told the newspaper.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Additional reporting by Emily Chow Writing by Paul Carrel Editing by Mark Potter and Angus MacSwan
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.