Switzerland and China have concluded negotiations on an updated free trade agreement aimed at expanding Swiss access to its third-largest trading partner, Swiss officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Swiss president Guy Parmelin and China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao announced the conclusion of the talks after a meeting \u200bin Bern, Reuters<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Under the agreement, 99.8% of Swiss exports can \u200benter the Chinese market duty free, upgrading an \u2060existing deal where the terms applied to only around \u200bhalf of Swiss shipments.<\/p>\n Almost all Chinese exports to Switzerland<\/a> are \u200bduty free under the existing 2014 free trade agreement between the two countries, Beijing’s first such deal with an economy in continental \u200bEurope.<\/p>\n Other areas covered in the new agreement include rules \u200bof origin and trade facilitation, trade in services, digital trade, competition, and \u200ceconomic \u2060and technical cooperation.<\/p>\n China is Switzerland’s third biggest trade partner after Germany and the United States, with bilateral trade amounting to 46 billion Swiss francs ($57.6 billion) so far in 2026.<\/p>\n Trade \u200bbetween the \u200btwo countries has \u2060expanded from 31.7 billion francs in 2015 to 51.2 billion francs last year, according \u200bto figures from the Swiss customs office, \u200bwith China \u2060a big market for Swiss chemicals, pharmaceuticals, precision instruments and watches.<\/p>\n Once the legal review has been completed, a signing of \u2060the \u200bdeal is expected later this year, \u200bbefore the domestic approval processes in each country take place.<\/p>\n