China, Switzerland forge ahead in FTA talks

BEIJING -- China and Switzerland have made great progress in the sixth round of bilateral talks on a possible Free Trade Agreement, according to a Ministry of Commerce statement posted on its website on Friday.

During the three-day talks starting from Tuesday, the two countries reached consensus on a series of topics including the service trade, tax cuts mode for the cargo trade, technical barriers, intellectual property, trade remedy and dispute settlement.

China and Switzerland launched FTA talks in January this year, aiming for closer bilateral economic ties.

In the first seven months of this year, bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached $15.53 billion, with China's imports from Switzerland hitting $13.48 billion, mainly from trade of wrist watches, machines and pharmaceuticals.

China's exports to Switzerland are mainly comprised of clothes, shoes, automatic data processing equipment and ships, said the statement.

In 2011, trade between the two countries totaled $30.9 billion, up 54 percent year on year.