# China-Swiss trade talks stall over rights issues – newspapers
Author:  Pal Sinha, Barnali 
Author URL: https://financedigest.com/author/pal-sinha-barnali
Published: 2022-05-30
Category: NEWS
Category URL: https://financedigest.com/category/news
Meta Title: Switzerland-China FTA Talks Stalled Over Human Rights
Meta Description: Switzerland's efforts to update its FTA with China have hit a roadblock over Beijing's human rights record. Stay updated on the negotiations.
URL: https://financedigest.com/china-swiss-trade-talks-stall-over-rights-issues-newspapershtml

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GENEVA (Reuters) -Efforts by Switzerland to refresh its free trade agreement with China have stalled as Bern takes a more critical view of Beijing’s human rights record, Swiss newspapers reported on Sunday.

Switzerland and China signed a free trade agreement in 2013, Beijing’s first such deal with an economy in continental Europe. The move was styled as a mutually beneficial pact aimed at contributing to increased trade between the two economies.

Switzerland has been trying to [update the accord to extend tariff reductions to more Swiss products and to include sustainability features](https://www.financedigest.com/host-analytics-releases-cloud-epm-platform-update-with-powerful-new-features-for-consolidation-and-modeling-to-help-organizations-achieve-peak-performance.html "Host Analytics Releases Cloud EPM Platform Update with Powerful New Features for Consolidation and Modeling to Help Organizations Achieve Peak Performance"). However, Beijing is not engaging in this effort, the newspapers said.

“So far it has not been possible to agree on a common list of topics that should be explored in greater depth,” Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said in a statement to newspaper SonntagsBlick.

Asked to respond about the stalling of the talks over human rights concerns, [China’s foreign](https://www.financedigest.com/first-foreign-covid-vaccines-head-to-china-from-germany.html "First foreign COVID vaccines head to China from Germany") ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday: “The China-Swiss FTA is a mutually beneficial agreement, not a gift from one party to another.

China [hopes](https://www.financedigest.com/european-shares-rally-as-china-stimulus-lifts-recovery-hopes.html "European shares rally as China stimulus lifts recovery hopes") that Switzerland can exclude any man-made interference and work with China to move in the same direction,” Zhao told a regular press briefing.

NZZ am Sonntag, under the headline “The Chinese impasse”, said Switzerland had become more critical of [China’s human rights record](https://www.financedigest.com/china-records-worlds-first-human-death-from-h3n8-bird-flu-who.html "China records world’s first human death from H3N8 bird flu -WHO").

A Swiss parliamentary initiative recently passed by the National Council’s Legal Affairs [Committee denounced forced labour of Uyghurs in northwest China](https://www.financedigest.com/us-house-committee-chair-concerned-by-tesla-deals-in-china.html "US House committee chair ‘concerned’ by Tesla deals in China") as “a real problem.

Western states and rights groups accuse Xinjiang authorities of detaining and torturing Uyghurs and other minorities in camps. Beijing denies the accusations and describes the camps as vocational training facilities to combat religious extremism.

Jean-Philippe Kohl, head of economic policy at industry association Swissmem, told NZZ am Sonntag that Switzerland should pursue quiet diplomacy on [China’s human rights record](https://www.financedigest.com/bentley-cruises-to-record-sales-in-2022-despite-china-drop.html "Bentley cruises to record sales in 2022 despite China drop").

“If we, as a small economy, constantly point the finger of rebuke at China, nothing will change, except that relations will eventually break down,” he told the newspaper.

(Additional reporting by Emily Chow and Martin Quin Pollard; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Angus MacSwan and David Holmes)


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