Swiss minister talks finance and free trade in India

Machines and machine parts make up a large chunk of Swiss exports to India. Keystone / Stefan Puchner

Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has held talks in New Delhi with India’s finance and foreign ministers. On the agenda were bilateral trade issues and India’s upcoming G20 presidency.

With his Indian counterparts Nirmala Sitharaman and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Maurer notably spoke about Swiss expertise and possible cooperation in the area of sustainable finance, his ministry said on WednesdayExternal link.

Maurer also expressed a desire to “rapidly complete” negotiations for a free trade agreement between India and the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), which have however made little progress since being launched in 2008.

He also tried to promote Switzerland’s position as “a reliable partner in the context of India’s G20 presidency next year”, the finance ministry wrote.

Trade potential

India is Switzerland’s second-biggest trade partner in Asia (after China) but authorities and certain industry sectors see potential to boost links with the growing market.

Annual trade between Switzerland and India comes to around CHF30 billion ($31.7 billion), with exports largely driven by precious metals, machines, pharmaceutical products and chemicals. Imports are notably chemicals, textiles, precious metals and agricultural goods, according to the Swiss Economics Ministry.

Switzerland is also a significant source of foreign direct investment in India; and more than 300 Swiss companies there employ some 130,000 people, the Economiesuisse business federation wrote last year.

Maurer’s visit comes just a week after another high-level Swiss delegation from the foreign ministry travelled to Delhi for talks about a bilateral partnership in the areas of digitalisation, innovation and sustainability.