China's Premier Li Keqiang was poised today to sign a key accord with Switzerland bringing closer a free-trade deal seen as a touchstone for Beijing's growing global ties.
After high-level talks, Li and the Swiss government were scheduled to ink a memorandum of understanding on the free-trade accord, paving the way for the expected official signature in coming months.
Li arrived in Switzerland yesterday, on the first stop of his debut visit to Europe since taking over in March in Beijing's once-in-a-decade power transfer.
On Saturday he heads to Germany, China's main European trade partner.
Unlike Germany, Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, and Li's visit to the Alpine country comes a month after China signed a free-trade deal with tiny Iceland, which likewise stands outside the 27-nation EU bloc.
The deal with Iceland was China's first with a European country, and China has been pressing the EU to work on a similar accord.
"Switzerland will be the first continental European country, as well as the first in a list of the 20 largest global economies, to have concluded a key free trade deal with China," Li said this week in the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
"This will not only enhance our economic and trade cooperation, but also send the world a strong signal about the fight against trade and investment protectionism, as well as the liberalisation and facilitation of trade," he underlined.
Efforts to strike an overarching deal with the EU would be more complicated, however, because Beijing would need to negotiate with the entire 27-nation bloc, not just individual member states.
Yesterday, EU officials said that they aimed to negotiate an investment protection agreement with China, which would be the first step on the road to a wider free-trade deal, despite a series of tit-for-tat disputes with Beijing.
Li suggested that the Swiss deal could have wider implications.
