Economy of Switzerland
Apart from agriculture, economic and trade barriers between the European Union and Switzerland are minimal. In the wake of the Swiss voters' rejection of the European Economic Area Agreement in 1992, the Swiss Government set its sights on negotiating bilateral economic agreements with the EU. Four years of negotiations culminated in Bilaterals, a cross-platform agreement covering seven sectors: research, public procurement, technical barriers to trade, agriculture, civil aviation, land transport, and the free movement of persons. Parliament officially endorsed the Bilaterals in 1999 and it was approved by general referendum in May 2000. The agreements, which were then ratified by the European Parliament and the legislatures of its member states, entered into force on June 1, 2002. The Swiss government has since embarked on a second round of negotiations, called the Bilaterals II, which will further strengthen the two organisations' economic ties.
Switzerland has since brought most of their practices into conformity with European Union policies and norms in order to maximise the country's international competitiveness. While most of the EU policies are not contentious, police and judicial cooperation to international law enforcement and the taxation of savings are controversial, mainly because of possible side effects on bank secrecy.
Swiss and EU finance ministers agreed in June 2003 that Swiss banks would levy a withholding tax on EU citizens' savings income. The tax would increase gradually to 35% by 2011, with 75% of the funds being transferred to the EU. Recent estimates value EU capital inflows to Switzerland to $8.3 billion.
[
Institutional membership
Switzerland is a member of a number of international economic organizations, including the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
[
See also
- Merchant Marine of Switzerland
- Economy of Europe
- Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH
- 2000 Watt society
- Swiss National Bank
[
References
- ^ CIA GDP ranking. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ^ International Monetary Fund.
- ^ see poverty in Switzerland
- ^ CIA Factbook Swiss Economy
[
External links
- OECD's Switzerland country Web site and OECD Economic Survey of Switzerland
- SWISS MARKET IND
- Swiss Federal Statistical Office
- Gross Domestic Product Growth - Switzerland
- Swiss Economic Forecasts
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.