Switzerland: negotiations to upgrade the free trade agreement with China are complete

The negotiations, launched in September 2024, were conducted over five rounds and aimed to correct an imbalance in market access between the two countries. According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the upgraded agreement is expected to exempt 99.8% of current Swiss exports from Chinese customs duties, compared with around half today, with 77.5% of exports exempted as soon as the text enters into force.

Beyond customs duties, the revised text covers rules of origin, trade facilitation, services, e-commerce, competition, and economic and technical cooperation. Environmental provisions and those relating to workers' rights have also been strengthened compared with the 2014 agreement.

On the import side, this revision changes nothing in the immediate term: Switzerland has already abolished customs duties on almost all industrial products, regardless of origin, since 1 January 2024, and that move remains separate from the current reform. The next steps are the legal finalisation of the texts, followed by signature later in 2026, then each country's internal approval procedures.

This primarily affects Swiss exporters to China, the country's third-largest trading partner after the European Union and the United States; the new rules of origin and trade facilitation measures could, however, also be of interest to companies that have part of their production manufactured or assembled in China before shipping it to Switzerland.