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Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO Bilateral Economic Relations

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Market Access Workshop University of Bern, October 26, 2018

Ambassador Erwin Bollinger Delegate of the Swiss Federal Council for Trade Agreements Head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Confetti?

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Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Switzerland: A Trading Nation

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Quelle: DHL Global Connectedness Index (2015)

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

• Shaping of foreign economic policy in a bilateral setting
• Economic diplomacy:

à Missions à Bilateral visits à Joint economic commissions

• Support for Swiss companies on the ground

Seeking and ensuring market access

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Mission Statement: Bilateral Economic Relations

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government 5

Swiss Market Access Policy

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WTO FTAs with Non- EU partners Bilateral Agreements with the EU Three pillars of the Swiss market access policy

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

WTO

• Reliable and enforceable international rules
• Predictability and legal security
• Transparency

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Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Switzerland–EU

Services 2016 (*2) Trade 2017 (*1) Direct investment 2016 (*2) CHF 133bn (71% of CH imports) EUR 129 bn EUR 977bn CHF 117bn (53% of CH exports) EUR 767bn EUR 70 bn

Sources: (*1) Swiss-Impex (Total 1), (*2) Eurostat

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Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Switzerland-EU

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Agreements/Area s based on Harmonisation Classical FTA Relationship

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Free Trade Agreements

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30 free trade agreements with 40 partners outside the EU

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Ongoing negotiations

Negotiations for new FTAs:

• India (17 rounds, last one in Sept. 2017)
• Indonesia (15 rounds, Aug. 2018)
• Malaysia (8 rounds, March 2017)
• Mercosur (5 rounds, Oct. 2018)
• Vietnam (16 rounds, May 2018)

Modernization and expansion of existing FTAs:

• Mexico
• SACU
• Prospective: Canada, Chile

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Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

Increasing FTA Depth over Time

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• Design of Trade Agreements (DESTA) database: 0-7 index

à goods, services, investment, IPR, standards, public procurement and competition policy

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

General scope of Swiss FTAs and Priorities*

• Preamble
• Trade in goods: Market access for agricultural & industrial* goods
• Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)
• Technical barriers to trade (TBT)
• Trade in services: Financial and logistics services*
• Investment
• Protection of intellectual property*
• Government procurement*
• Competition
• Trade and sustainable development*
• Institutional provisions
• Dispute settlement

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à EU external trade policy as an important reference for EFTA

Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

What’s ahead: WTO pillar

• Continuation of discussions on topics of interest to wider WTO

membership in multilateral or plurilateral formats: E.g. fisheries subsidies, E-commerce, MSMEs and investment facilitation.

• Importance of filling vacancies on the Appellate Body without delay.
• Further scope for strengthening the work of the regular committees

and increasing transparency.

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Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

What’s ahead: EU pillar

• Future relations: Institutional framework agreement
• Brexit:

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Market Access: Perspectives from the Swiss government

What’s ahead: FTA pillar

• Conclusion of the ongoing negotiations
• Modernisation of existing agreements

à Avoiding discrimination

• New agreements, new benchmarks?

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Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO Bilateral Economic Relations

Thank you for your attention! erwin.bollinger@seco.admin.ch