The purpose of trade negotiations in Switzerland?

On September 6, 2021, Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov held talks with Erwin Bollinger, Commissioner of the Swiss Federal Council for Trade Agreements. The working trip to Switzerland is held on behalf of the President of Kazakhstan. It should be recalled that Minister Sultanov is the co-chairman of the bilateral Kazakh-Swiss intergovernmental commission.

The sides discussed issues of expanding and deepening trade and economic cooperation.

Bakhyt Sultanov noted the existing imbalance of trade flows and the need to diversify the structure of mutual trade. He offered his colleague a list of potential export goods from 70 product names for a total of $400.3 million.

"We have the opportunity to increase the supply of products from the petrochemical, machine-building, metallurgical, chemical, food, construction goods and light industry products. Large - scale work is being carried out in Kazakhstan to bring Kazakhstan's products, which can potentially be exported to the European Union, into compliance with the EU requirements and norms," the head of the Ministry of Trade said.

The parties also noted the importance of updating the regulatory framework in order to deepen trade and economic cooperation between our countries. In particular, the progress of work on the preparation for the conclusion of the Protocol on the internal regulation of trade in services.

"The signing of this Protocol will help to eliminate legislative barriers, improve the administration of licensing systems and ensure transparency of licensing requirements," Sultanov said.

We agreed to hold a regular meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission next year.

The issues of the upcoming 12th WTO Ministerial Conference were also discussed at the meeting. The parties expressed hope in achieving results on the substantive issues of the MK-12 and the effective holding of this conference.

On the same day, the Minister of Trade and Integration held meetings with representatives of a number of Swiss companies: Filippo Lombardi, President of KS Genetics SA, a member of the board of the Crypto Valley Venture Capital venture company, Johann Schneider-Ammann, ex-federal adviser and federal President of the Swiss Confederation. As well as Hans-Christian Schneider, CEO, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ammann Group, and Peter Spuler, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stadler Rail AG, Co-Chairman of the Kazakh-Swiss Business Council.

The Minister discussed issues of investment in export-oriented projects on the territory of Kazakhstan with business representatives.

For reference:

In 2020, Switzerland became the 11th largest trading partner of Kazakhstan with a share of 2% in the total trade turnover of Kazakhstan.

The volume of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and Switzerland by the end of 2020 decreased by 39% and amounted to $ 1.7 billion. (2019 - $2.8 billion).

Exports from Kazakhstan to Switzerland in 2020 decreased by 42.9% and amounted to $ 1.5 billion. The main decline in exports was due to a reduction in supplies of crude oil (against the background of a decrease in world prices), natural gas – by 24.5% or by $52 million(against the background of a decrease in commodity prices in the context of a reduction in demand in Europe due to the pandemic). Imports to Kazakhstan from Switzerland in 2020 increased by 38.9% and amounted to $188.4 million.

In January-July 2021, the trade turnover amounted to $673.2 million, which is 37% lower than in the same period of the previous year ($1,0169. 2 million).