Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has hailed a free trade deal with Switzerland as a landmark achievement, saying it had "huge meaning" for global trade and underscored Beijing's growing openness to the world.
"This free trade deal is the first between China and a continental European economy, and the first with one of the 20 leading economies of the globe," Li told reporters yesterday after the two countries inked a preliminary agreement, paving the way for a final signature in Beijing in July.
Li said the implications of the Swiss deal would be felt well beyond the Alpine nation's borders.
"This has huge meaning for global free trade," he said.
"China, a country with a vast population and huge currency reserves, is increasingly internationalising," he underlined, adding that Beijing's strategy of openness was paying dividends.
Swiss President Ueli Maurer dubbed the agreement a "real milestone".
Bilateral trade between Switzerland and China was worth USD 26.3 billion in 2012, with a full USD 22.8 billion of that figure represented by Swiss exports to China.
That made it one of the rare Western countries to have a positive trade balance with the Asian giant.
In contrast, exports by European economic powerhouse Germany to China in 2012 were worth the equivalent of USD 86 billion, and imports from China, USD 99.8 billion.
Switzerland's top exports to China are watches, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and machinery, while textiles and machinery head the list of imported Chinese goods.
The trade talks were launched in 2011.
After wrangling notably over Chinese taxes on imported Swiss industrial goods and Switzerland's rules on China's agricultural exports, the two countries wrapped up technical talks earlier this month.
"We see the deal as something positive," Jean-Daniel Pasche, the head of Switzerland's FHS watchmaking federation, told AFP. "It will give a legal framework to our cooperation."
He said his industry was hoping to see a fall in Chinese import duties on watches -- currently at 12 to 16 per cent -- as well as better safeguards against counterfeiting.
After a formal signature, the deal will still need to clear the Swiss parliament.
