BERN - President Guy Parmelin and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said on Thursday that Switzerland and China have finished negotiations on an updated free-trade agreement. The announcement came at a meeting in Bern. A memorandum between the Swiss economy department and China's commerce ministry records that the talks on enhancing the existing agreement are concluded.
Conclusion of negotiations is not ratification. Parliament in Bern still has to be asked, and Beijing has its own steps. What Thursday settles is the bargaining. The text both sides will now take home is an optimisation of the agreement Switzerland and China already have, not a first treaty.
Why the timing sits next to other trade fights
Swiss trade politics this year have been loudest on Mercosur, which the National Council rejected in June after farm protests. That vote is in our June report. China is a different argument: an existing deal, a sitting president whose portfolio is the economy, and a partner that does not come with the same European farm politics. The two files will still be quoted in the same speeches.
What was not published on Thursday
The announcement does not list tariff lines or a date for signature of the final instrument. Those details belong to the text that follows the handshake. The political fact is the one Parmelin and Wang Wentao put on the record in Bern: the negotiation is over.