China edges closer to free trade update with Switzerland
China and Switzerland signed a joint declaration on Monday agreeing to deepen their partnership after Premier Li Qiang met the Swiss President, the Swiss government said.
Li, the most senior Chinese official to visit Switzerland since President Xi Jinping’s visit in 2017, met President Viola Amherd alongside a high-ranking Chinese delegation ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
+ Why Switzerland refuses to follow EU sanctions against China
The declaration entails the finalisation of a joint study to develop the two countries’ existing free trade agreement. “This marks an important step towards the start of possible negotiations,” the Swiss government said.
China is Switzerland’s third-biggest trading partner after the United States and the European Union. The two countries signed a free trade agreement in 2013, Beijing’s first such deal with an economy in continental Europe.
+ Read why the glass is only half full with the Sino-Swiss FTA
But efforts to refresh it previously stalled amid reports of concerns about China’s human rights record.
A dialogue between the Swiss and Chinese foreign ministries will resume this year and is set to include human rights.
Li and Amherd, who met in an 18th century manor house near the capital Bern, also discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Swiss statement said.
More
Li Keqiang: the ex-Chinese premier who wanted open trade with Switzerland
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.