The European Commission said today that products exported from the EU to Switzerland will not receive any export refunds. On the Swiss side, agricultural levies and export refunds will be substantially reduced and limited to the maximum price difference for the inputs of raw materials that exist between the two markets.
Moreover, exports and imports of sugar containing products are totally liberalised on both sides and no agricultural levies will be payable on products imported from Switzerland into the EU.
These new trade rules are, according to the Commission, part of the bilateral agreements between the EU and Switzerland, which were signed on 26 October 2004 in Luxembourg.
"This agreement between the EU and Switzerland marks a further step in increasing the competitiveness of a major European industry through eliminating the negative impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers to third country market access," said vice-president Günter Verheugen.
For the time being, this agreement is only applied provisionally, but the Commission says it has already taken the decisions necessary for ratification. The implementation of the EU-Switzerland agreement will now be monitored and the Commission will draw up an annual report to follow its developments.
More than 70 per cent of the agricultural goods produced in the EU are transformed into food industry products. The most important destinations for exports are the US, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, Canada and Norway.
The food processing industry is the third biggest EU industry employing some 2.7 million people with more than 26,000 companies across the EU.