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UK-Switzerland Enhanced Free Trade Agreement
14 July 2026
Lead MP
Chris Bryant
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
BrexitBusiness & Trade
Other Contributors: 15
At a Glance
Chris Bryant raised concerns about uk-switzerland enhanced free trade agreement in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
With permission, Mr Speaker, Chris Bryant provided an update on the enhanced free trade agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and Switzerland. This is the sixth trade deal secured by the Government in the last two years and significantly focuses on services rather than goods like previous agreements. It includes high ambitions for digital trade, business travel, and eight core growth-driving sectors such as financial services, life sciences, and digital technologies. The agreement underscores the importance of UK's services sector which employs 83% of workers and supports exports worth £30 billion to Switzerland last year, potentially increasing by £5.2 billion annually. It also enhances job creation through foreign direct investment valued at £87 billion and secures rights for UK lawyers advising on foreign law in Switzerland without requalification. Additionally, the deal protects data privacy while supporting digital trade, and ensures future cooperation between both nations, particularly in life sciences with strong intellectual property provisions. The agreement supports Gibraltar's businesspeople to supply services to Switzerland without permits. It includes improvements in e-gate access for UK nationals at Swiss borders and aims to strengthen collaboration on climate change, development, and gender equality. Overall, the deal will benefit all regions of the UK by supporting firms across various sectors. Bryant concluded by highlighting other recent trade agreements with the USA, India, Korea, Gulf Co-operation Council, and others, emphasising their importance for a stronger economy.
Question
Griffith questioned whether Chris Bryant agrees that the deal was possible only because of Brexit, which enabled independent trade policy.
Minister reply
Chris Bryant did not provide a direct answer but emphasised the importance of securing free trade agreements to enhance job prospects and better pay across the UK.
Andrew Griffith
Con
Arundel and South Downs
Question
I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. We Conservatives warmly welcome this excellent agreement... A nation inside the customs union cannot cut its tariffs on sparkling wine, win tariff-free access for British lamb, gain mutual recognition of professional qualifications, or secure better access to Swiss public procurement. Finally, I look forward to hearing an unabashed welcome for the benefits that will flow to his Maidenhead constituents from the Liberal Democrat spokesman... Does the Minister agree that, as a point of fact, it was only Brexit that made this agreement achievable?
Minister reply
It is an enormous delight to put a smile on the hon. Gentleman’s face... Of course, it is not just done by the politicians involved. The teams in our embassy in Switzerland and in our respective Departments—I include other Departments such as the Home Office, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero...
Liam Byrne
Lab
Birmingham, Hodge Hill
Question
I congratulate the Minister on deal No. 6... Will he take this opportunity to put our minds at rest that the deal that he is commending to us today will not lead to higher NHS prices in future, and will not impair access to generic medicines?
Minister reply
I am very grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee; I look forward to seeing my right hon. Friend later today and then again tomorrow, in two different sessions... That fear is misguided.
Maidenhead
Question
The Liberal Democrats want a closer, more sensible relationship with our European friends and neighbours... Given the serious risk of disruption with the entry and exit systems, will he tell the House when our constituents can expect the same clarity and certainty for airports across the European Union, so that we can really make a positive change?
Minister reply
Now, you see, the hon. Gentleman always has a smile on his face... I do not have personal responsibility for e-gates across the whole of Europe, so I am afraid the hon. Gentleman cannot hold me to account on that particular issue.
Rachael Maskell
Lab
York Central
Question
I congratulate my hon. Friend, but I want to ask about pharma in the light of the US-UK pharma deal. When I met academics yesterday, they expressed a concern that if we were to change the terms of the deal with the US, because of mounting costs and the cost to lives which are foreseen under that deal, it could have an impact on the deal that he has now signed. Can he give this House an assurance that we would not have to go back and renegotiate the deal with Switzerland, if we were to renegotiate the deal with the US?
Minister reply
No, there are no direct connections between the two. More importantly, I have read some of the commentary about our US deal on pharmaceuticals. We sought to ensure that big pharmaceutical companies based here in the UK remain and that we did not end up with tariffs on our pharmaceuticals being sold into the United States.
Question
As a member of the Business and Trade Committee, it is a delight to see the fruits of Brexit being brought home. Will the Minister confirm that the deal is not contingent on us taking Swiss courts as being superior to our own? We are not aligning with their rules on angular chocolate, for instance.
Minister reply
I am afraid the hon. Gentleman’s argument is full of holes. I should also point out to him that Toblerone is no longer Swiss; it is owned by an American company and is therefore not covered under Swiss rules. We are not supine in our relationship with the EU; we are absolutely determined to get a good deal.
Stella Creasy
Lab
Walthamstow
Question
I very much welcome the deal that the Minister has struck, because it means that we can learn from the Swiss, who have access to the single market for goods and a managed migration scheme. Could the Minister tell us what he thinks this teaches us for our future relationship with the European Union?
Minister reply
I detected the Duran Duran quotes there. It is important that we are able to secure mutual recognition of professional standards; otherwise, we do not have full business mobility. That is one of the key things we are trying to sort out with the European Union at the moment.
Question
I welcome this deal, and I agreed entirely with the Minister when he said that the primary role of Government is to take down barriers preventing UK businesses from exporting. Will he tell the House where most of the compromise fell in negotiations?
Minister reply
We did have forthright conversations—as, for that matter, I did on the deal with the Gulf Co-operation Council. The last bits end up with a degree of haggling, and it has to be done Minister to Minister because we have a bit more political leeway to be able to deliver the goods.
Question
I congratulate the Minister on securing this deal. I was interested in what he said about this being a statement of intent for future co-operation. If he stays in his position under the new Prime Minister, what sort of future co-operation would he like to see?
Minister reply
There are a lot of British businesses and Swiss businesses that fit alongside each other in a perfect way, and we therefore need to address these issues face to face.
Andrew Murrison
Con
South West Wiltshire
Question
Obviously I welcome this deal, but the Minister recently told CNBC’s Ritika Gupta that he believed that this country’s “historic destiny” was to rejoin the European Union. Last December, the Deputy Prime Minister said that we should rejoin the customs union. Do either of those things represent Government policy?
Minister reply
Government policy is represented by our manifesto commitments, but a boy is allowed to dream.
Question
I join the City of London and the British Chambers of Commerce in welcoming this deal. I wonder whether I could invite the Minister to come and have a meeting with my constituents to sell and make quite clear to them the opportunities that this deal now presents.
Minister reply
I can wholeheartedly commit the Minister for Trade to organising precisely such a meeting in the near future. The financial services industry, some of which is based in the City of London, will benefit from this deal.
Question
A study last month showed that the Scottish economy has been hit to the tune of £30 billion every single year because of Brexit. So although I welcome some of the additional benefits that will come from this deal for Scottish agricultural industries, there is still a deep feeling among Scottish farmers that they have become collateral damage.
Minister reply
Only 1% of all tariffs on goods are at zero between the UK and Switzerland already, so there was not more to achieve in that. The financial services industry and tech businesses across Scotland will stand to benefit from this deal.
Question
I thank the Minister for his statement and for his great work in securing the deal. I particularly welcome the fact that the call he received in Hyde Park while the Scissor Sisters were playing has enabled him to cut red tape in our trade relationship with Switzerland.
Minister reply
Packaged together, all these trade deals represent a significant additional set of opportunities for British businesses. Our Department’s job is to try to persuade and enable people to understand how they can do that.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Question
I thank the Minister very much for his statement. There are strong commitments to all of the United Kingdom. In particular, I welcome the focus on—and, indeed, the bonus for—the high-tech industries in Northern Ireland, which will enable our businesses to grow even more. Does the Minister agree that this is an excellent example of the benefit of being an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? As I often say in this House, we are always better together, and here is the proof.
Minister reply
One of the great things about Northern Ireland, of course, is that it gets the double benefit of being both in the European single market and in the UK’s single market. That has undoubted benefits. If I could point to one tiny area where having left the European Union has caused us an enormous headache this year, it would be steel. It seems bizarre, in the end, that the UK and Europe, which are not one another’s problem for steel production—other countries in the world are, where there is over-production and unfair subsidies—should have to negotiate access between one another. It would make much more sense if we were able to achieve some kind of shared deal.
As this is perhaps my last appearance as Minister for Trade—[Interruption.] Well, who knows? I just want to thank my private office. As every single Minister will know, our private office is the only way that we ever get anything done. I want to say an enormous thank you to everybody in my team, so to Alisha, Josh, Josh—there are two Joshes, senior and junior—Lola, Georgia and Tarek, I say an enormous thank you. We would not have got any of these deals over the line if it had not been for them.
Shadow Comment
Andrew Griffith
Shadow Comment
Andrew Griffith thanked Chris Bryant for his statement and congratulated the Ministers and officials who delivered this agreement. He noted the importance of independent trade policy due to Brexit, which enabled Britain to strike deals like this one. Griffith emphasised that future Conservative Governments will pursue deeper trade agreements with countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Mercosur. However, he pointed out a significant omission in Bryant's statement: not mentioning 'Brexit benefits' despite the deal being possible only due to leaving the EU. He argued that without Brexit, this agreement would not have been achievable, highlighting how it allows for lower tariffs on British lamb and mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
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