UK and Switzerland conclude a major services trade deal

Designed to help drive real commercial advantage, the agreement is estimated to boost UK–Swiss bilateral services trade by £7.2 billion (7.9 billion CHF) each year in the long term. This agreement will create new opportunities for businesses in crucial sectors including finance, tech and digital, and legal services to export their services to the UK. It has the potential to increase the UK’s services trade with Switzerland by 25% a yearopens www.gov.uk in a new tab in the long run.

Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, met the President of the Swiss Confederation, Guy Parmelin, to conclude the landmark trade agreement.

What the agreement means for UK and Swiss businesses

This agreement helps Swiss firms access more opportunities in the UK, a crucial market, giving them a strategic advantage over their competitors. Swiss firms had invested £44 billion in the UK up to the end of 2024opens www.ons.gov.uk in a new tab and this agreement will help boost investor confidence, supporting jobs and growth in the UK for the years to come.

The agreement also boosts business connectivity, making it easier and more efficient for Swiss and UK nationals to travel to and do business in each other’s countries. It will also support and reward innovation, research and development, confirming important aspects of the UK’s existing laws on intellectual property.

This will help drive further co-operation between Switzerland’s and the UK’s world-leading life sciences sectors, which could ultimately benefit patients through potential new discoveries and medicines. The deal also creates an innovation dialogue between our governments, businesses and academia to ensure it adapts to future trends.

Powering a world-leading services partnership

Commitments from across the services section of the agreement will significantly improve Swiss access to UK expertise, from the insurance and legal sectors to architectural services and finance. The existing UK–Switzerland Services Mobility Agreementopens www.gov.uk in a new tab, which supports UK services firms to send employees to Switzerland to deliver projects for a period of up to 90 days, has been put on a permanent footing.

We have also made it easier for UK businesses to access Swiss talent and expertise through a bespoke, visa-free, short-term service supplier route. It will now be possible for a UK business to bring a Swiss service supplier to work in the UK at short notice for a period of up to 3 months. This will strengthen the bilateral trade relationships in sectors such as insurance, consultancy and legal services.

This deal also provides opportunities to build partnerships with every corner of the UK, whether that be West Yorkshire’s Northern Square Mile, financial technology (fintech) companies in Wales, the City of London, high-tech industries in Northern Ireland or the thriving services sectors in Scotland.

A platform for growth

This new FTA represents a major step forward in unlocking opportunities in the UK and Switzerland, supporting businesses big and small to access new clients and opportunities.

Now is the time to explore what the UK–Switzerland FTA could mean for your next phase of expansion.