Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Faculty of International Business and Economics

Switzerland

Prof. Alina Alexoaiei

Student: Valentina Olteanu

Group 945

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Structure and volumes of trade in the last 10 years

In terms of exports, in the last 10 years, the biggest share in value in countrys cluster exports is
held by pharmaceutical products, the peak was reached in 2013 when it represented 25.11%, but
ever since it has continued to drop, while pearls, precious stones, metals and coins continued to
grow. To put it in numbers, Switzerland continued to gain more and more from pearls, precious
stones, metal and coins (~6 million in 2005 - ~69 million in 2014) whereas pharmaceutical
products brought in 47,090,469 euro in 2014, it kept on growing from ~18 million in 2005. If in
2005 the share of pearls, precious stones, metal and coins in terms of export was 5.14 it kept on
growing until it reached 29.65% in 2014 bringing Switzerland 69,398,224 euros.
The third position is occupied by machinery, nuclear reactors and boilers and it represents a share
of 8.25%, the lowest from the last 10 years, it has oscillated in between 15.21%-10.67% which
means that in time the demand for their products has decreased. Even though the share in value in
percentage has dropped they gain more now (~19 million euros) than they did 10 years ago (~16
million euro), in time the amount of money kept on growing even though in 2009 they suffered a
drawback and obtained only 14,914,599 euros.
The fourth and fifth place have been interchangeable, clocks, watches and parts thereof grew,
reaching the maximum of 10.28% in whereas organic chemicals have dropped from 10.11% in
2005 to 6.81% in 2014, this places them on the fifth position, whilst clocks, watches and parts
thereof occupy 7.81%. In terms of money it is impressive to see that clocks, watches and parts
thereof used to bring in gains of ~8 million euros and nowadays the gains go to more than 18
million euros, whereas organic chemicals kept on escalating as well coming from 10 million to
14.
When it comes to imports, the first three positions are the same as in terms of imports, although
here the ascension of the shares in value are different. Pearls, precious stones, metals and coins
grew their share from 6.27% in 2005 to 32.02% in 2014, the biggest jump was from 2013-2014
(from 8.09% to 32.02%) the growth in terms of money it is of about 60 million euros.
Pharmaceutical products kept their share pretty much stable, oscillating in between 9% and 11%
and yet the amount of money has almost doubled, from 9,437,843 million euros in 2005 to

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17,699,476 million euros in 2014. Machinery, nuclear reactors and boilers kept descending from
11.59% to 7.34% and yet the amount of money they bring in kept on ascending from 11,775,094
to 15,189,456.
The fourth and fifth position are similar in terms of share and they also have been pretty stable
during the last 10 years, vehicles other than railway, tramway decreased from 7.24% to 5.54%
whilst electrical, electronic equipment decreased from 8.22% to 5.44%, all this time they kept
bringing in almost the same amount of money.

Main export destination markets and trade partners

In terms of export destination Germany occupies the first place and it has a significant advantage,
its share is of about 15.2% in 2014 the lowest in the last 10 years, previously its share was of
about 19-20%. United States of America is the second trade partner and it kept on being pretty
stable having a share of ~10%. Hong Kong occupies the third position, it kept on covering a
bigger share, starting from 2.5% in 2005 to 7.8% in 2014, a similar but more impressive thing
happened with India, if in 2005 they covered 0.9%, in 2014 they cover for 6.8%. France on the
other hand, lost more than 2%, if in 2005 was covering for 8.7% of the Switzerlands exports

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nowadays

covers

for

only

6.1%.

If for Switzerland Germany is the first in the top of export partners, for Germany Switzerland is
only on the 7th position covering for 3.5 - 4,5% in the last 10 years. Netherlands is the first
importer, it covers for 9.6% and for the last 10 years they have always gained more than double
that Switzerland (51-88 million euros), China is pretty close and it managed to keep on getting
close, if in 2005 it covered for 6.5% nowadays it covers for 8.8%, their growth is much more
impressive than that of Netherlands which started from 8.3% but that happened because China
managed to impose as a manufacturer in the entire world. France lost part of its share, if it was
covering for 8.6%, nowadays it can be accounted for 7.3% mainly due to prices which are higher

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than that of competitors. United States also kept on descending, like Italy, but their fall has been a
bit steeper, from 6.7%, they came to 5.5% whereas Italy lost only 0.5%.
For the United States, Switzerland is only on 14th position and it has been covering for ~1% but
this still brings in 23,670,258 euro, during the last 10 years those gains oscillated between 10-21
million, they registered even a drawback in 2009 when they gained with 1 million less. As it
happened in the case of Germany, China became the main importer for the USA place that was
considered to be kept safely by Canada. If in 2005 China covered for 15% of USAs imports, with
almost 2% less than Canada, it kept growing until they reached ~20% (19.9%) while Canada is
covering or 14.8%. In terms of money there can be also seen a difference, China in 2005 and
Canada in 2014 have almost the same share, still, Canada receives with ~50 million euros more,
but it is still a big difference than the money China earns nowadays (~350 million euro)
considering they used to receive 208,633,035 euro back in 2005. Mexico kept growing its market
share from 10% to 12.5% and they managed to gain ~221 million euros, which is considerably
more than ~138 million which is how much they used to gain in 2005.
In Italy, Switzerland is on the 9 th position covering for a stable percentage of 3%, they follow
closely the United States of America, which covers for 3.5% and they lost the 8 th position when
Russian Federation registered an almost 2% raise in market share (2008-2009). The first position
is kept by Germany (15.4%), even though it lost ~2% in the last 10 years it still imposes as a
leader on this top being followed by France which also lost ~1.5% covering nowadays for only
8.6%. The difference in percentage is the same as the difference in terms of money. China
somehow managed to register a continuous growth, from 4.6% to 7.1%, but they had a drawback
in 2011, in 2010 they reached the highest value of 7.8%, but this did not meant much in terms of
money (less than 1 million euro), yet they gain with only 5 million less than France (25,035,067).

Bibliography
www.trademap.org

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Bucharest 2015