Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched “Switzerland’s Economic Footprint in India” on Tuesday. This study is set to demonstrate the strong interactions and complementarities between the two economies.
Parmelin was on a two-day visit to India where he hoped to spark “a new impulse” for negotiations on a free trade agreement. Talks between India and the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) have however made little progress since being launched in 2008.
“This visit gave new impetus to the negotiations for a free trade agreement” between the two countries, said Urs Wiedmer, Head of Communications of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) from the Swiss embassy in New Delhi.
“A high-level meeting on this issue is expected even before the end of the year,” the Swiss economy minister wrote on Twitter.
India is Switzerland’s second-biggest trade partner in Asia after China, with annual trade between the two nations being around $31.7 billion. Switzerland invested FDI equity worth approximately USD 4.781 billion in India from April 2000 to September 2019 thus becoming the 12th largest investor and accounting for about 1.07% of total FDI in India during this period. India’s imports are largely driven by precious metals, machines, pharmaceutical products and chemicals, while exports are notably chemicals, textiles, precious metals and agricultural goods. Switzerland is also a big source of foreign direct investment in India; more than 300 Swiss companies there employ some 130,000 people.
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