Free Trade Agreements as BRI’s Stepping-Stone to Multilateralism: Is the Sino–Swiss FTA the Gold Standard?

In Chap. 5, Casas and Serrano propose that China’s Free Trade Agreements (FTA) are part of a long-term multilateral approach with the potential to be included in the institutional infrastructure of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). By developing a BRI Initiatives Dynamic Evaluation Framework, they emphasize that initiatives under the BRI will be subject to decision and evaluation mechanisms that transcend China proper. This means that FTAs are dynamic rather than static. The key element in this iteration is the FTA upgrade, which includes trade impact analyses, business agent surveys, utilization rates, and signaling effects. The Sino–Swiss FTA is evaluated as part of this long-term strategy of upgrading bilateral relationships into a comprehensive system that relies on institutional outsourcing of the upward kind from nations with deep institution-building experience.

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Notes

Sino–Swiss relations have a long history, dating back to the establishment of diplomatic relations on 17 January 1950. Switzerland was one of the first Western countries to recognize the PRC. The Schindler Group (a Swiss multinational producing escalators and elevators) was the first firm to establish an industrial joint venture in China in 1980, heeding Deng Xiaoping’s call for reform and opening. Apart from the FTA, which entered into force in 2014, a currency swap agreement was signed that same year, cementing the close economic relationship.

“The Swiss federal government does not follow any systematic monitoring of the real implications of its free trade agreements (FTA). It has been found that only customs duty-income reductions and country of origin specifications have been systematically controlled. Other customs aspects evaluated by the PVK (Parliamentary Commission) have been found to be failing in fulfilling its aims […]. Additionally, the aspect of FTA utilization (rates) is not systematically evaluated. The procedures and competences in the implementation and future development of FTAs also show deficiencies” (author’s translation of the Parliamentary Report from German).

Moser, Peter. 2017. Presentation at the “Enhancement of the Switzerland–China Free Trade Agreement” first meeting May 18, 2017, Bern, Switzerland.

The principles are: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; mutual non-aggression; non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. China Competence Center, FIM-HSG University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland Tomas Casas i Klett
2. Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Omar Ramon Serrano Oswald

1. Tomas Casas i Klett