The Swiss minister Johann Schneider-Ammann is striving for a free trade agreement with the EU milk and meat sectors. He now wants to look at the possibilities and the plans have been presented to the Swiss Federal Government.
Minister Schneider-Ammann wants to introduce the agrarian free trade in stages. In the cheese sector free trade has already been established and it is the intention that this will now be extended to other sectors. The minister of agriculture describes this as follows: "Agrarian free trade is not just black-white. The market will have to be opened step by step all the time. With the free trade in cheese we have an example of how this operates. This will have to be the basis before we can take a next intelligent step."
The Swiss agrarians are not in favour of these plans. Jacques Bourgeois, director
of the 'Schweizerischen Bauernverband', showed his concern. "The situation in the milk sector is very difficult at the moment. There is the possibility of high pressure on the price and the income of middle class companies will suffer. Therefore we want the market not being opened any further, as otherwise even more pressure will be the result.