Swiss-US free trade deal on WEF agenda

Switzerland wants to kick-start negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United States at this month’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting. Efforts to revive an FTA, following the collapse of a previous attempt in 2006, have so far made slow progress.

Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, who holds this year’s rotating presidency, said Davosexternal link could be an ideal springboard to get fresh negotiations properly started. Maurer is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the summit which runs from January 22-25.

“The meeting is confirmed,” he told television station Tele Züri on Sunday. “We are trying to get the free trade agreement on track.”

Former Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann first mooted the idea of reviving FTA talks between the two countries in September. But an initial meeting in December yielded little joy as the US chief negotiator was tied up with more pressing issues.

Schneider-Ammann was replaced by Guy Parmelin at the beginning of this year. US Ambassador to Switzerland, Edward McMullen, told swissinfo.ch last month that renewed negotiations stood a good chance of producing positive results.

He rejected claims that Schneider-Amann had been snubbed in December and said agricultural developments since 2006 could iron out some of the difficulties both countries then had with concluding an FTA.

Source: Swiss Info