An overlook on bilateral trade
The agreement on Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments, the EFTA-Türkiye Free Trade Agreement as well as the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement provides a favourable legal framework for bilateral trade and economic activities between Switzerland and Türkiye.
The total trade volume of goods in 2020 between Türkiye and Switzerland reached $7.4 billion, whereby Türkiye’s share is $1.1 billion and Switzerland’s share $6.3 billion (excluding gold). This results in an increase of 822% since the ratification of the Free Trade Agreement in 1992. In terms of trade in services, Switzerland exported services worth of $739 million and imported $833 million in 2020. Looking at the pre pandemic period, the volume of services exported to Türkiye from Switzerland have been higher compared to services from Türkiye to Switzerland. Although the trade balance between Türkiye and Switzerland is in favour of the later, Swiss tourists and the remittances of Turkish citizens living in Switzerland, which is 68’000 as well as Swiss investments in this country offset a part of this gap.
Tourism is another important economic activity between the two countries The number of Swiss travelling to Türkiye reached a peak of 324’849 visitors in 2013. Despite the pandemic period in 2020, Türkiye welcomed around 128’000 Swiss tourists in while most of them entered Türkiye in Antalya. Several daily scheduled commercial flights connecting three Swiss airports to Istanbul as well as several seasonal charter flights to the Mediterranean coasts of Türkiye provide a rich alternative to travellers between the two countries.
