Treaty with Colombia: rebellion in the House of Representatives

To date, Switzerland has refused to link trade issues with social and environmental concerns. None of its agreements with developing countries has any such provisions. The only exception is the Efta agreement with Colombia, which includes a chapter on biodiversity. For the rest, unlike Colombia's agreements with the USA and Canada (see lead article), it contains neither environmental nor social stipulations.

This sparked a lively debate in the House of Representatives – a new departure, considering that Parliament would previously waive through such trade agreements mostly without comment. During the summer session 2009, 73 of 176 members of the House of Representatives came out in favour of making improvements to the Efta agreement with Colombia and linking it more closely with human rights and environmental regulations. It is now for the Senate to make a pronouncement – it will be discussing the agreement in the autumn.

Article published in: Alliance Sud News No. 60, Summer 2009