However, our company need likely not worry about import controls, since import regulations and controls only apply to products under monopoly control such as medication.
Quota amounts are subject to annual review, but again our company is likely not going to be concerned with this since, although largely restricted to goods from developing countries, quotas are imposed only on textile goods and clothing,
Exchange control is the responsibility of the Central bank and is administered by authorized banks 4.
In short, our German construction common will be faced with minimal to no non-tariff restriction whatsoever.
Technical Barriers to Trade
Included under non-tariff barriers is Technical Barriers to Trade - a category unto itself, which entails that, each and every item of prefab and connected to prefab that the company imports into Switzerland has to cohere to mandatory technical regulations and voluntary standards that define specific characteristics. These define elements of the products that the company can import such as its size, shape, design, labelling / marking / packaging, functionality or performance. so-called "conformity assessment procedures then check where the German company will have accorded to these regulations, and regulation is monitored by use of certification, product testing, and/or inspection.
TBT is a major barrier since it can hurt trade and competitions of importing companies, particularly if these companies are small and medium enterprises....
International standards are used as basis for technical regulations
Appealing Technical / non-technical barriers
If the company feels harassed by any of these technical or non-technical barriers, it can address these complaints via various procedures, which include:
1. Submitting written comments under the TBT notification procedure.
2. Raising the issue in the World Trade Organization (WTO) TBT committees that occur three times each year
3. Participating with stakeholders (Member States, European industry, technical experts) to seek solutions in making a coordinated approach in changing regulations 5
References
Australian Government. "Doing business in Switzerland," https://www.austrade.gov.au/Doing-business-in-Switzerland/default.aspx (accessed February 1, 2011)
European Commission Trade: "Non-Tariff barriers," http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/trade-topics/european-competitiveness/non-tariff-barriers (accessed February 1, 2011)
World Trade Organization (WTO), 2003. incidence of non-ad valorem tariffs in members' tariff schedules and possible approaches to the estimation of ad valorem equivalents pdf. http://wits.worldbank.org/witsweb/download/docs/wto_s10.doc (accessed February 1, 2011)
1 WTO, 2003
2 Australian Government, [online].
3 Australian Government, [online]
4 Ibid.
4 ibid.
5 European commission Trade, [online])
