UK and Switzerland kick off trade talks

14th October 2024

UK and Switzerland resume trade talks for an upgraded free trade agreement.

UK and Swiss negotiators to meet for first time since the election to restart negotiations on an upgraded trade agreement.

Trade between our two countries is worth over £50 billion.

Negotiations begin as the first International Investment Summit gets under way showcasing why the UK is a top destination for inward investment.

The UK will on Monday [14 October 2024] kickstart negotiations with Switzerland on an enhanced and upgraded Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Switzerland is the UK's 10th largest trading partner and 7th largest export market, with total trade between our two countries worth £51bn in 2023. The talks, the first to take place under this Government, provide a chance to further strengthen our trading relationship, drive economic growth and create jobs across the UK.

The UK and Switzerland are both leading service-based economies, with services trade accounting for nearly £30 billion of UK-Swiss trade, despite our existing trade agreement focusing mostly on goods.

A modern deal could support jobs in all UK nations and regions, including 120,000 services jobs directly linked to trade with Switzerland, and provide much needed long-term certainty on travel arrangements for UK firms. Nestle Purina recently announced a £150m investment to revamp facilities at its factory in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, installing new technology and creating 40 new jobs.

Negotiations resume as the UK Government welcomes global investors to the International Investment Summit in London next week. The summit will make clear that the UK is "open for business" as the government resets relations with trading partners around the globe. The upgraded UK-Switzerland FTA will include detailed commitments on services and investment for the first time, providing UK and Swiss businesses with guaranteed access to one another's markets to encourage investment and services trade in both directions.

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
Economic growth is this government’s driving mission and trade with partners like Switzerland has an important role to play in that.

Trade between our two nations has quadrupled in the last 20 years, with services playing a huge role in that success.

I’m looking forward to starting negotiations on an updated and modern trade deal, which will help drive economic growth and boost jobs and prosperity across the UK.

Zurich Insurance Group UK CEO Tim Bailey said:
As a global insurer and large investor in the UK, we fully welcome the ever-closer trading relationship between the UK and Switzerland.

We have a large presence throughout the UK and we’re proud to partner with people, communities and businesses in managing risk.

Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation, Chris Hayward, said, " The UK and Switzerland are the two largest financial centres in Europe. The restarting of negotiations with Switzerland is hugely welcome and will significantly boost trade in services, which already drives substantial growth in both countries.

We hope a trade agreement would build on and support the landmark Berne Financial Services Agreement, signed last year, which provided mutual recognition in financial services - the first agreement of its kind globally. We hope that the UK-Switzerland free trade agreement would maintain this focus on improving services trade still further.

The current UK-Switzerland trade deal is largely based on an EU-Swiss deal from 1972 and does not cover digital trade or data flows. However, 80% of all services exported from the UK to Switzerland were digitally delivered in 2021.

Monday marks the first round of UK-Switzerland negotiations since the Business and Trade Secretary announced in July his intention to deliver an ambitious FTA programme. The UK restarted talks with the GCC just last month and is coordinating with other FTA partners to get negotiators back in the room as soon as possible.

As of 2022, the stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Switzerland into the UK totalled £61.9 billion. Going the other way, the stock of FDI from the UK into Switzerland totalled £52.4 billion.
In 2020, Scotland and the North West were each estimated to have exported more than £700 million of services to Switzerland, 30% of them in financial and insurance services.