Tag Archives: International

A deal agreed between EFTA and the South American Mercosur bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, with a combined population of 260 million, is close to signing. © Tomas Griger | Dreamstime.comEFTA includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Under the deal, 95% of Switzerland’s CHF 3.6 million annual exports to the bloc would be tariff free. The deal is important because the EU recently agreed a similar Mercosur deal, so this deal will maintain...

Criticism of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by Swiss unions intensified in 2007 after the Court ruled against workers in the Laval case in Sweden. © Paulgrecaud | Dreamstime.comLatvian workers were being paid less than the minimum wage on a construction site in Sweden. In protest, local workers blockaded the site. However, the CJEU ruled against the blockade on the grounds that it prevented the free movement of services. Swiss unions viewed the ruling as a failure...

Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has accused three former officials of the German Football Association (DFB) and one from FIFA of fraud and has filed an indictment against them. © Brillianceeye | Dreamstime.comHorst Rudolf Schmidt, Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach, from the DFB, and Urs Linsi, a former Swiss FIFA official are all under the spotlight.  The four are accused of fraudulently misleading members of a supervisory body of the DFB organising committee for...

Every year Luzern receives around 9.4 million visitors, or roughly 25,000 a day, according to a university study. © Marekusz | Dreamstime.comTourism is putting a strain on the city, bringing traffic to a standstill and creating crowds in public spaces. In addition, many visitors arrive on buses, tour the town, and leave without spending a night, which generates little for the economy and little to invest in additional infrastructure. According to the broadcaster RTS, the...

According to an analysis by the Swiss broadcaster RTS, Switzerland’s reliance on EU exports has declined in recent years.  Swiss exports – © Alan Stoddard | Dreamstime.comOver the first quarter of 2019, for the first time, exports to the US exceeded those to Germany by more than CHF 1 billion reaching CHF 15.7 billion. Exports to the US have risen from 8.3% to 16.3% of total Swiss exports over the last 30 years.  Another Swiss export market on the rise is China, which has increased its...

In this year’s Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore tied for the the position of the most expensive. © David Prahl _ Dreamstime.com The survey looks at 160 items including food, drink, rent, transport and utility bills, in 133 cities. New York, the base city, came in 7th, alongside Seoul and Copenhagen. Zurich and Geneva were 4th and 5th. The ten most expensive cities were: 1. Singapore (Singapore)1. Paris (France)1. Hong Kong (China)4. Zurich...

In 2016, Switzerland exported CHF 412 million of weapons, according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO). © Brett Hondow | Dreamstime.com This ranks Switzerland 11th globally, according to RTS. The five largest importers of Swiss weapons were Germany, South Africa, the US, India and Pakistan. Weapons exports made up only 0.14% of Switzerland’s total exports in 2016, said the SFAO. The SFAO report said that all war material exports in 2016 which were checked by the SFAO were correctly...

The number of visitors to Switzerland rose 6% this summer, but this headline figure hides some steep rises and falls. © Martinmark | Dreamstime From May to October 2017, 11 million people holidayed in Switzerland, 644,000 more than the over same period in 2016. Swiss made up close to half the total (4.9 million), followed by Germans (950k), Americans (663k), Chinese (659k), British (396k), French (365k), Indians (263k), Italians (253k), South Koreans (208k), Japanese (182k), Dutch (175k),...

Le Matin. The French-Swiss group, described as “disreputable” by the Ville de Paris, will not be supplying sand to the city of Paris this summer. © Kevinbrine | Dreamstime.com Paris Plages (Beaches), a project that creates temporary beaches of sand along the banks of the river Seine every summer, said it would take no more sand from LafargeHolcim because of its willingness get involved in Donald Trumps’s disastrous Mexican wall project. Bruno Julliard, a representative of Paris’s mayor, said...

Investec Switzerland. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was aiming to solve a two-year-old dispute with Switzerland over immigration in a country-specific manner even in the wake of Brexit. © Mykhaylo Palinchak | Dreamstime.com The Swiss government has been at pains to implement restrictions on European Union newcomers decided upon in a 2014 referendum without annulling an economically important set of treaties with the 28-country bloc. Although...