Yves Rossier will lead the federal Department of Foreign Affairs, replacing Maurer
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Roberto Balzaretti was named Switzerland’s ambassador and head of the Swiss Mission to the European Union, based in Brussels, Wednesday 11 January.
His EU counterpart, Richard Jones (British), presented his credentials to Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf as part of the annual new year diplomatic presentations.
A key appointment was announced Wednesday: Yves Rossier, 51, is the new State Secretary in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), succeeding Peter Maurer, who has taken on the job of president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva.
Rossier began his career in the Department of Foreign Affairs but he has since worked in several government offices, holding varied positions, the most recent of which has been as director of the Federal Office of Social Security in the Department of Home Affairs.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss ambassador to the US and American one to Switzerland have both said in recent days that they hope and expect an agreement to be reached in the near future as the result of discussions between the two governments over US investigations into 11 Swiss banks. The banks are under suspicion for helping wealthy Americans in the US to use offshore accounts to hide money from the IRS, the US tax arm.
But Donald Beyer, the US ambassador to Switzerland, made it clear in an interview with NZZ published 25 December that he has not been present at the negotiating table and that his job as ambassador is to deliver to Bern his government’s expectations and “to explain to my government, that in Switzerland there are clearly defined processes that must be adhered to properly.”
Beyer nevertheless says he hopes to see an agreement reached by the time the Swiss parliament’s spring session meets in March. He also noted that since Swiss bank UBS paid the US for helping “US citizens who have not fulfilled their duty” to the IRS, an agreement “should provide a payment” in the cases of other banks.
Switzerland’s ambassador to the US, Manual Sager, told swissinfo earlier in December that the two countries are “reasonably close” to an agreement, saying that finding one is a priority for relations between the two countries today:
“Clearly, we have to get the issue of tax information behind us. Our main focus has been to avoid a clash of jurisdictions and we have made a lot of progress in the past ten months. We have agreed on a legal framework and a procedure to be followed for the exchange of information. The US side has accepted that Swiss law needs to be adhered to. Some issues remain open, but I’m confident we will find a resolution.”
Meanwhile, a client of a Swiss bank, which Reuters, citing a court official, says is Credit Suisse lost a Swiss court request for more time before the Swiss government can hand over data on the client’s bank account(s).
The Swiss government 29 November published a notice that the beneficial owners of the accounts should declare their assets to the IRS by 20 December.
Credit Suisse is one of the banks under investigation by the US and in November it contacted a number of clients to say their account data was being demanded by the US.
The Swiss government published a 29 November deadline for clients whose accounts are among those Credit Suisse is
Photo: Shangrila Farms, Yunnan Province, China
BERN, SWITZERLAND – “Switzerland’s free trade agreement negotiations with China are in a rather early stage but they are well underway” following the third round of talks between the two countries, Swiss Ambassador and Delegate for Trade Agreements Christian Etter has told GenevaLunch.
Switzerland, which has a trade surplus with China despite the former’s small size, has taken a European lead in working out a free trade agreement (FTA) with Asia’s giant economy since the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding 28 January 2011, says Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey.
“It shows we’re not afraid,” she said, smiling, at a press conference in Geneva 28 November. She was treating it lightly, but Switzerland is keen to keep the negotiations moving, particularly in the wake of a slowdown in negotiations between China and Iceland and China and Norway.
Both sides have said they would like the talks to move swiftly.
EU’s Almunia says stable trade framework is the way forward
The comments come as the European Union’s anti-trust boss called for less bickering and a better trade framework between the EU and China, at the EU-China Forum held in Brussels this week, organized by the Friends of Europe. Joaquın Almunia is quoted by Dow-Jones 29 November as saying that “everything linked with intellectual property rights, innovation, know-how, is not well-solved in our relations, we are discussing with our Chinese partners but I don’t find we have a stable framework to benefit from both sides of our common understanding.” He added that “playing this same kind of game means these pressures, these intensities will increase.”
Swiss-China trade picks up while Swiss-EU trade slows
Switzerland is China’s ninth largest trading partner in Europe, with the smaller country having a trade surplus for 2011 of CHF2.13 billion by the end of October. China is Switzerland’s largest trading partner in Asia. During the first 10 months of the year Switzerland’s exports to China grew by 26.2 percent, while imports from China slipped by 3.3 percent.
China is Europe’s largest trading partner and its trade surplus with Europe is €160-€180 billion in 2011, according to the Wall St Journal.
Trade has been stagnant between the EU and Switzerland during the first 10 months of the year, with exports to the EU down 0.5 percent and imports up 3.1 percent.
Iceland was the first European country to start FTA negotiations with China but its talks have cooled down, with Iceland’s application to join the European Union. Negotiations began formally in July 2010; EU membership would exclude implementing a separate FTA with China.
And talks with Norway have slowed down since China expressed its displeasure over the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Third round of negotiations covered hefty list of topics
The latest round of talks in the free trade negotiations between Switzerland and China took place in Montreux 8-10 November. The talks were launched in Davos in January, with talks held once in Bern and once in Beijing.
The two teams in Montreux held expert level discussions and exchanged information on respective regulatory systems and FTA-practices covering several areas: trade in goods, trade in services, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), trade remedies, intellectual property rights, competition and dispute settlement.
The heads of of the two delegations and experts discussed investment promotion, cooperation on trade and sustainable development, and cooperation on government procurement, and agreed on follow-up work in all areas.
The fourth round of negotiations are expected to take place in China in early 2012.
Background
- World Trade Organization, most recent trade policy review for China, June 2010
- EU / China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government has recalled its ambassador to Syria for consultations, to send a strong signal to Damascus that Bern cannot accept the Syrian government’s violence against its citizens and the fact it has ignored international appeals to stop.
The recall falls short of a rupture in international relations, Bern noted in a statement issued Thursday 18 August:
“Due to the fact that the numerous calls from the international community to end the violence have been ignored, the FDFA has decided to recall the Swiss Ambassador in Syria to Bern for consultations. This decision was made because Switzerland cannot tolerate the systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against the civilian population. In view of its humanitarian tradition, Switzerland wishes to send a strong signal to Damascus. The recall of the Swiss Ambassador in Damascus is not, however, equivalent to a rupture of diplomatic relations. The Swiss Embassy in Damascus remains open and fully operational.”
The Federal Council approved sanctions against Syria 18 May, in line with those of the European Union, and it extended these 24 May and again this week, 17 August. These include freezing assets of government officials and their entourages, travel bans and restrictions on arms exports. Bern is also demanding that Syria give foreign journalists access to the country, to report on events there.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Monday 11 July condemned a Syrian crowd’s attack on its embassy and the ambassador’s residence in Damascus Monday, breaking windows and prompting Washington to summon the Syrian ambassador. France’s embassy was also attacked and reports conflict over whether or not there were any injuries but France appears to be considering telling its staff to leave.
The Financial Times reports that US Ambassador Robert Ford, who angered the Syrian government by visiting the restive city of Hama last Thursday, published an unusually blunt message on the US State Department’s Facebook page before the US embassy was attacked. The Guardian notes that hundreds of Syrian protesters attended the funeral today of Khaled Afnan in the central Syrian city of Homs, reportedly killed by government forces over teh weekend.
A debate is heating up over who will serve as the new Libyan envoy to the United Nations, as defections from the Qaddafi regime mount up.
Two figures whose names were put forwarde as the next envoy have both resigned: former Libyan Foreign Minister Abdessalam Treki and recent Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who is now in the UK and facing questioning over his involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Recent reports suggest that the ex-foreign minister of Nicaragua, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, may take up the position. However, it is uncertain whether Brockmann, who has only a tourist visa for the US, would be allowed to fill the role.
Libya’s deputy UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi claims, “We know that most of the high Libyan officials are trying to defect, but most of them are under tight security measures and they cannot leave the country.”
Links to other websites: CNN, Aljazeera, Wall Street Journal
China is cautiously watching as North Korea (DPRK) a longtime friend, lashes out at the United Nations over its review of the sinking of a South Korean military boat, the Cheonan. Forty-six people died in the 26 March incident. Xinhua, the official news agency, carries several related stories Wednesday 16 June, after North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Sin Son-ho, held a rare news conference where he appeared to threaten military action if the UN condemns the North for the incident. The Security Council is reviewing reports on the sinking, which North Korea “has rejected as a ‘complete fabrication’” reports Xinhua, which carefully avoids condemning either Korea, as it notes that “the DPRK is vowing to respond with military measures if the UN Security Council releases any official document blaming them for the Cheonan incident.”
Meanwhile, Xinhua reports that North Korean football fans watching delayed TV footage of the World Cup games were cheering for South Korea.
Links to other sites: ABC, Australia, NY Times, RiaNovosti, Russia, Xinhua
Michael Punke, US ambassador to the WTO, 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - “We’re not negotiating with a gun to anyone’s head – that’s not the way the WTO works,” says Michael Punke, the new US ambassador to the World Trade Organization. “What we’re hoping is they will step up and take up their leadership role,” he says, referring to India, China and Brazil. “At the end of day: we have to ask, are the advanced developing economies ready to accept the responsibility and leadership” that goes with their new roles?
The ambassador lost no time Monday morning, during a media breakfast for the new man in Geneva, making it clear that he is keen to start negotiating and to see the Doha Round of trade talks get back on track.
Punke insists there is strong support in the US “to negotiate a Doha outcome that is balanced and ambitious.”
Balanced, in the sense of advanced developing economies taking stronger roles.
Ambitious, in the sense of the Doha Round succeeding without the “arbitrary deadlines or big bang events [that] haven’t worked” in the past, the kind of events where top-level ministers show up and work intensely and everyone hopes the outcome will be a great leap forward.
He believes Geneva has focused too much on these. He is adament that “there aren’t any shortcuts but sitting down, day in and day out” to get through the issues that remain. “The only way to improve that balance is to engage in negotiation.” The US, he says “wants to focus on key sectors in priority markets – the advanced developing economies.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nigerian ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi and Swiss Migration Office director Alard du Bois-Reymond met in Geneva for an hour 29 April, a meeting organized by the Swiss Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, reports swissinfo. The meeting was reportedly an informal discussion on asylum issues. “Alard du Bois-Reymond had irritated Nigerian authorities with remarks about Nigerians making a high number of unjustified asylum requests,” notes the Swiss public broadcast web site.
Background, GenevaLunch feature
US Ambassador to UN and int'l oganizations in Geneva, Betty E King
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Betty E King presented her credentials as US ambassador to the UN Wednesday 3 March. She is now officially the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva., filling a post that has been empty since Warren Tichenor left when Barack Obama became president in January 2009.
Three other Obama appointments to Geneva, besides King await Senate confirmation: Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe as US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council and Laura Kennedy as US ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, as well as Michael Punke as ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
Betty E King, named US ambassador to the UN and international organizations in Geneva
Updated 15 February (photo added) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The US Mission in Geneva announced late Friday that Betty E King was confirmed 11 February as the new US ambassador to the UN and international organizations. King was nominated to the post in late October 2009 and the confirmation came in a voice vote in the US Senate. Details about when she will take up the post are not yet available. King led an unofficial delegation to the preparatory meetings for the Durban Review Conference in 2009, in addition to the items listed by the US Mission as part of her biography.
Background, GenevaLunch
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Peter Maurer, who is currently Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, has been named the country’s new secretary of state, in the Foreign Affairs Office. He will service under Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey, minister for foreign affairs.
Maurer, 56, replaces Michael Ambuehl, who was named 13 January to the new post of International Financial and Tax Matters. Maurer will most likely take up his post in March 2010, when Ambuehl, whose post must be confirmed by parliament, begins his new job.
Michael Ambuehl, Switzerland's State Secretary for International Financial and Tax Matters
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Michael Ambuehl has been named Switzerland’s State Secretary for International Financial and Tax Matters, head of a new secretariat within the Federal Finance Department. Ambuehl is probably best known as the man who negotiated the UBS arrangement with the United States Justice Department in early 2009. The new secretariat “will serve the purpose of reinforcing Switzerland’s international position in financial and tax matters,” the official announcement states.
The new office will be responsible for Switzerland’s interests in the International Monetary Fund and in the Financial Stability Board, and it will “actively participate in international efforts to combat financial crime. Moreover, it will analyze developments in the financial markets in Switzerland and abroad, and will further develop legislation concerning the financial sector.”
Ambuehl is thus charged with overseeing Switzerland’s ambitious project to play a more aggressive role in international finance and tax matters, as it tries to shed a reputation as a tax haven, which the Swiss say is largely a misperception.
Etas project in Zimbabwe: the Roger Federer Foundation is spending some CHF80,000 a year on the project to improve the infrastructure of 8 schools, as well as investing in teacher training and the quality of education for about 2,000 children in the Matopo region.
Basel and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer has signed a 10-year contract with Swiss bank Credit Suisse, for an undisclosed sum, the bank announced Monday 16 November. Federer, on his web site, notes that “As part of the partnership agreement, Credit Suisse will make a significant annual contribution to the Roger Federer Foundation, which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged children and to promoting education, sports and play, particularly in Africa.” The foundation was inspired by Federer’s South African mother and currently states on its web site that its capital is CHF4 million.
The bank’s CEO, Brady Dougan, did not stint in his enthusiastic praise of the Swiss tennis star:
US President Barack Obama told his war council, a group of top Pentagon, Cabinet and administration officials, that the US commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended, when the group met for more than two hours Wednesday 11 November. In a dramatic follow-on to the news, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, former military leader Karl Eikenberry, has sent a message to Obama, in a memo leaked to the press, that it would be a mistake to send more troops before corruption in the country is tackled. Obama asked for revisions to plans from the council members to increase troops, at the request of the top US commander in Afghanistan. The main sticking point for Obama is to clarify the point at which US troops will hand over to the Afghanistan government, a move linked to ending corruption in the government.
Links to other sites: the Canadian Press agency, CNN
Irina Bokova, a diplomat from Bulgaria, has been named director-general of Unesco, the first woman to hold the post. She is currently Bulgaria’s ambassador to France and Monaco. Bokova was selected by Unesco’s executive board over Egypt’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, after five rounds of ballots in September 2009. The organization’s general conference voted to confirm her appointment Thursday evening 15 October. She studied at Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Russia and the University of Maryland and Harvard in the US, and she is fluent in five languages. Libya, just days before the election, had threatened to boycott Unesco if she were elected, because of the case of Bulgarian nurses and a doctor who found guilty in Libya of intentionally infecting children with HIV/Aids.
Links to other sites: Bokova’s personal web page, Sofia Echo, Unesco, Xinhua
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An empty desk in Geneva is receiving more than normal attention: that of the US ambassador, whose unwieldy title is US Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations. The post has been empty since January 2009 when Warren Tichenor left. Tichenor, a Texan and George W Bush appointment, may not have been a household name, but the new US ambassador could well quickly become one, thanks to sharper interest in how the US will work with other countries on several issues, many of them through international organizations based in Geneva.
This is the era of the Obama administration, with its promise of new relationships, and the period of Hillary Clinton at the helm of the US State Department, re-booting the Start talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva in March 2009. Obama told a group of ambassadors in Washington Wednesday 29 July that “I came into office with a strong commitment to renew American diplomacy, and to start a new era of engagement with the world. This must be a moment when we engage on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect, so that we can build new partnerships for progress.”
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
One name being bandied about for the Geneva ambassador’s job is that of Obama fundraiser Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe. Le Temps wrote some weeks ago that she will be named, basing the information on “sources close” to President Obama, and IP Watch, an intellectual property industry newsletter, named her as the likely candidate in a 29 July article.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has named Eduard Gnesa Extraordinary Ambassador for international collaboration on migrations issues. The new post has been created to deal with the growing number of questions and problems related to migration at an ambassadorial level, particularly important with countries where Switzerland has bilateral treaties or where there are regional agreements, Bern notes.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland Monday called in the Israeli chargée d’affaires in response to the Swiss ambassador to Israel being recalled, to express the Swiss government’s surprise and displeasure at “the virulent remarks made publicly by a number of Israeli government figures” concerning the meeting between the Swiss and Iranian presidents in Geneva.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Relations between Switzerland and Germany, already tense over the issue of banking secrecy and German taxpayers, appear to be worsening despite Switzerland’s announcement last week that it would relax its strict interpretation of the country’s law covering secrecy and fiscal information exchanges.
Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The Swiss ambassador, along with the German one, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, were reported to have been asked to leave, but the Sri Lankan government Monday reassured Bern that it was all a mistake, a case of a misunderstanding, and that relations remain good, reports Le Temps.
