BBC News, 24
May 2013
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Bilateral trade between China and Switzerland is worth $26bn |
The signing
ceremony took place during an official visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to
Switzerland.
Bilateral
trade between the two countries is worth $26bn through imports and exports of
watches, medicines, textiles and dairy products.
Mr Li said
he hoped the deal would be felt beyond Switzerland's borders.
"This
free-trade deal is the first between China and a continental European economy,
and the first with one of the 20 leading economies of the globe," Mr Li
told reporters after the two countries signed the preliminary agreement.
"This
has huge meaning for global free-trade," he added.
For his
part, Swiss President Ueli Maurer described the agreement as a "real
milestone".
China is
Switzerland's third biggest trading partner after the European Union and
America, with exports to China of watches, pharmaceuticals and machinery
amounting to over $22bn.
It is no
coincidence that China's premier made Switzerland his first stop on his brief
European tour, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Berne says.
China has
hinted it could also make Switzerland its financial centre of choice, if
Beijing allows offshore trading of its currency, the yuan, she adds.
High-level
figures in Switzerland's watch-making industry are viewing the deal positively,
hoping it will reduce China's import duties on watches from 16% to 12%.
""It
will give a legal framework to our cooperation," Jean-Daniel Pasche, the
head of Switzerland's main watch federation, told AFP news agency.
China is
also looking to sell Switzerland more textiles and agricultural products.
The
agreement still needs to be cleared by both chambers of the Swiss parliament
before it can be ratified.
Mr Li, who
is on his first foreign trip since becoming premier in March, is due to visit
Germany on Saturday.
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