Swiss economics minister in India for final push on EFTA trade agreement

Parmelin left the WEF in Davos to head straight to India to meet his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal, to iron out the terms of an EFTA free trade agreement. © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Switzerland and India have agreed on "the broad outlines of the EFTA-India trade agreement", Guy Parmelin said on the social platform X on Saturday. The economics minister was in Mumbai to press ahead with these negotiations, which have been going on for several years.

Parmelin left the World Economic Forum in Davos to travel directly to India following “a last-minute invitation” from his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal. “It was there that we reached agreement, after 16 years of negotiations, on the broad lines of the EFTA-India trade agreement”, Parmelin wrote on X.

Speaking on Sunday to the news agency Keystone-SDA, the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research explained that the EFTA states (Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and India had agreed, among other things, on the broad outlines of patent protection, a controversial subject in the past.

+ Switzerland remains global patent leader

“A new chapter on investment promotion is also to be included in the agreement. India will still provide the finalised text on this subject,” the department said. The negotiations have not yet been concluded, and the two parties have agreed not to divulge any details.

An agreement with India should create jobs for young Indians and safeguard Switzerland as an industrial location, said Parmelin in an interview published in Sunday’s SonntagsZeitung. For Swiss companies, market access that is as universal as possible is vital, he added.

Also for the most disadvantaged

A free trade agreement also facilitates access to environmentally-friendly technologies and encourages investment. “The poor in India will also benefit,” Parmelin said in response to development NGOs, which pointed out that India is a very poor country despite high growth rates.

“The Switzerland-India free trade agreement is within reach. This is excellent news for the tech industry,” said Swissmem, the umbrella association of the Swiss technology industry, on X.

+ Swiss watch industry sees India as next growth market

Swissmem, it added, supports Parmelin “in the final sprint to achieve the broadest possible abolition of customs duties for our products.”

Negotiations since 2008

Parmelin is heading the delegation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Last May, the economics minister met Goyal. The meeting was described as a positive step towards advancing negotiations on a free trade agreement. The EFTA states and India have been discussing this deal since 2008.

On Saturday, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) announced that EFTA had updated its free trade agreement with Chile. In future, almost all Swiss exports to Chile will be exempt from customs duties.

+ EFTA updates free trade agreement with Chile

And on Thursday, Parmelin announced on the fringes of the WEF in Davos that the free trade agreement between EFTA and Mercosur, which has been planned for years, could be concluded in 2024. The Mercosur states of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are said to be ready.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].