Bern : Ever since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Switzerland has been carefully watching Brexit proceedings.
The deal (or perhaps no deal) struck between the UK and the EU will be significant to non-EU member Switzerland. And it cannot come quickly enough for the Swiss.
“The clock is ticking,” sighs Jan Atteslander of the Swiss business association Economiesuisse.
“We are worried, right now the rules are clear, we can trade [with the UK].
“But now we are coming to a corner, at the end of March, and no one can tell us if there will be a [Brexit] deal or not.”
March is key because the UK is scheduled to leave the EU at 11pm UK time on Friday, 29 March 2019.
But hang on a minute, why on earth should Switzerland, which never joined the EU, be worried about the status of its trade ties with the UK, which is about to leave?
The reason lies in Switzerland’s own complicated bilateral deals with Brussels, negotiated over two decades, after the Swiss decided in 1992 not to join the EU.
