Fifty years ago, Switzerland signed the free trade agreement with the EEC – a milestone in history. She showed drive, great unity and a pan-European perspective.
Participation in the “integration of our continent”: Federal Councilor Ernst Brugger puts his signature under the free trade agreement, flanked by top diplomats Paul Jolles (left) and Paul Henri Wurth (right).
The agreement between Switzerland and the European Economic Community (EEC, today the EU), which was signed in Brussels on July 22, 1972, has a clear trade policy goal: it is intended to promote mutual prosperity by expanding the movement of goods. The liberal Federal Councilor Ernst Brugger, who is carrying out the formal act for Switzerland together with the chief negotiator Paul Jolles and Ambassador Paul Henri Wurth, speaks of a step in the country’s efforts “to work on the integration of our continent”.
The agreement establishes “a lasting connection with the European Communities”. Even if he “comes from a department of grocers and traders,” said Economics Minister Brugger later, he was able to recognize the “spiritual background” of the conclusion of the contract.
After detours at the destination
With the agreed complete abolition of import duties on industrial goods, which will take place in five steps by 1977, Switzerland has also achieved an important goal that has been aspired to for a long time. Especially since the EEC concludes analogous agreements with five other non-members, a Western European market with 300 million people is created. Because participation in closer integration is out of the question for Switzerland, it previously hoped for a free trade solution within the framework of the Organization for Economic Cooperation in Europe (OECE, predecessor of the OECD). Negotiations on this fail in 1958, above all because of resistance from France, which primarily wants to strengthen the young EEC.
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), founded in 1960 with the participation of Switzerland, is striving for liberalization alongside the then Community of Six, but depends on the heavyweight Great Britain. When this wanted to move to the EEC together with other states in 1961, Switzerland immediately made a request for association negotiations in Brussels. However, the EEC is only ready to expand after the resignation of French President Charles de Gaulle. At the same time, at the end of 1969, it declared its willingness to negotiate “special relations” with the remaining EFTA states, as it said without further specification.
For its part, Switzerland is considering a fairly wide range of negotiating issues. At the opening of the exploratory talks in November 1970, Economics Minister Brugger mentioned, for example, trade in services, technical barriers to trade and the law on medicinal products. Cooperation in economic and monetary policy as well as in research should also be examined. Bern wants to stick to its own foreign trade policy towards third countries and treat farmers with care in agricultural trade.
Too high ambitions
The resulting agreement is limited to tariff reduction, rules of origin and a few competition rules. Still, it signifies a success; because the EEC attaches importance to common external tariffs (customs union) and then also to legal harmonization. In addition, according to chief negotiator Jolles, it has “deviated from its original dogmatic principles” regarding neutrality. For Switzerland, the “development clause” is an important sign of further cooperation, according to which each contracting party can request negotiations on new areas.
In any case, it is remarkable that the two parties only need a good seven months for the negotiations after a one-year exploratory phase with a view to the timetable for accession to the EEC. During this time, other, more complex issues could hardly have been settled. Since there are no steps towards integration, there is no need for the non-member to have a “shaping role” in the community – a concern that Switzerland will always have a hard time with.
«Reconnaissance» on the inner front
The high pace will also be maintained in Bern. On August 16, 1972, the Federal Council passed the message and Parliament dealt with the agreement in the September session. The project is new, but relatively uncontroversial domestically. The trade unions also see the positive side of international competition. In addition to Brugger, Foreign Minister Pierre Graber (SP) has special responsibility. In the end, the only thing left to be discussed in the Bundesrat is whether a mandatory referendum would be appropriate. In the negotiations, Switzerland always operated with this “threat”. Justice Minister Kurt Furgler, on the other hand, refers to the constitution, which clearly does not provide for a referendum in such a case. Hans Peter Tschudi, on the other hand, argues that the treaty “introduces a development of our country towards Europe that is practically irreversible”. Like the government, the National Council and the Council of States decide in favor of a referendum to settle the difference.
However, the Federal Council is not looking forward to the elections without worries and is making special efforts to provide information. An employee of the integration office even states in a paper “What you shouldn’t say when educating the people about the agreement between Switzerland and the EEC”: for example, that it “represents Switzerland’s first step towards Europe”. An indirect connection with policy on foreigners is also problematic. Italy has successfully used the negotiations between Brussels and Bern as a bargaining chip to secure more rights for its emigrants living in the Confederation. “But the threshold for blackmail was never crossed,” says the diplomat Jolles afterwards. A vague joint “Declaration on Labor” is attached to the free trade agreement. Claims on the part of the foreign infiltration parties that there is a secret agreement are unfounded.
Unusually, the state government also prepared the voting campaign with an “opinion survey”. For Jolles, it results in an “amazing majority” of three quarters of those questioned in favor of the template. On December 3, 1972, this actually achieved an approval of 72.5 percent of the voters with a participation of 53 percent. It will then be almost twenty years to the day until the next referendum on European policy – about the EEA – and another eight years until the next positive referendum – about the bilateral agreements.
The cited and other documents can be found in the database of Swiss diplomatic documents: www.dodis.ch