'Uncertainty Is The Worst Enemy Of International Trade'

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The return of protectionism, the renegotiation of relations with the European Union, and a cooling Chinese market: against a backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, with whom and how should Switzerland trade? Our Let's Talk debate tackles this question.

This content was published on January 10, 2025 - 09:00 5 minutes

Journalist based in Bern. I am particularly interested in topics about society, politics and social media. Previously I worked in regional media, for the newspaper Journal du Jura and Radio Jura bernois.

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>> Watch the full debate above and turn on closed captioning (CC) for subtitles in your preferred language.

The Swiss economy generates more than one in three Swiss francs abroad. Foreign trade is one of the keys to the Alpine nation's success – but it also makes it vulnerable to geopolitical upheavals.

To maintain its prosperity, Switzerland therefore relies on free trade agreements: it has signed 35 of them with 45 countries or groups of countries.“These agreements are vital for a small country like Switzerland, whose domestic market is small. It is in Switzerland's interest to diversify its trading partners,” says Christine Kaddous, a professor of law at the University of Geneva, in our Let's Talk debate.

Guests of the Let's Talk debate also discussed trade with the European Union. The debate took place a few weeks before Switzerland and the EU announced in late December that they had concluded years-long negotiations on a package of deals governing future bilateral relations.

The last free trade agreement signed by Switzerland, alongside the other members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), was with India in March 2024. Cédric Dupont, a professor of international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute, considers it a success.“We are the first country after Australia to have succeeded in signing such an agreement with India,” he says.

>> Read our analysis on how Switzerland profits from free trade deals:

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