The negotiated agreement is now expected to enter into force on January 1, 2021, with the member states still having to give their consent. For the EU Parliament, however, a timely ratification is no longer sufficient, so that the agreement can only come into force provisionally.
In any case, Switzerland is prepared for the British exit from the EU: There are currently agreements in the areas of air and road transport, insurance, civil rights, migration and trade on the table. May come into force in 2021.
In mid-December, Bern and London also signed a fixed-term agreement on the mobility of service providers such as engineers and a police cooperation agreement.
The coordination of social security systems has not yet been definitively clarified. Talks are currently in progress, the federal writes. Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) at the request of Keystone-SDA.
Unregulated points
There are also unregulated points in the economic and trade agreement. Since Switzerland has harmonized some regulations with those of the EU, for example in relation to agriculture and technical barriers to trade, Bern and London could not regulate everything until the relationship between the EU and Great Britain was clarified.
If the negotiated agreement between Brussels and London falls victim to the veto of an EU state, trade between Switzerland and the United Kingdom should become more expensive – despite the trade agreement.
Because it looks like the British would be kicked out of the pan-Euro-Mediterranean zone because of the no-deal – a network of free trade agreements with identical rules of origin.
These essentially determine the “nationality” of goods: whether a product is considered Swiss even though “foreign” elements have been processed. But only products that have the “nationality” of the contractual partner benefit from tariff relief in free trade agreements.
Expansion of relationships
Switzerland must now close the existing gaps and further develop the relationship with London. Because the UK was “the sixth most important sales market for Swiss goods exports in 2018” with a volume of 8.8 billion francs, according to the 2019 report on foreign economic policy. According to the EDA, the UK was “the third most important destination country” for Swiss service exports in 2017.
Discussions are currently ongoing about a financial services agreement. It was also agreed to expand economic and trade relations after Brexit.
A deeper cooperation in education and research should also be in mutual interest. According to the EDA, a police cooperation agreement with London is expected to be signed “in December”.
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