BERN - Swiss farm organisations spent mid-August arguing about the food-safety chapter of the EU package without yet taking a formal position. A magazine scare about EU inspectors on Swiss farms did the rounds. Milk producers noted that Russian and Chinese audits have already happened when market access required them.
The Farmers' Union is due to discuss the wider package in October. Until then the silence is a tactic, not an absence of opinion.
Wage rules next door
Unions will judge the same package on posting and inspections of another kind. Agriculture and construction are different lobbies with a shared allergy to foreign control, real or imagined.