The free trade agreement between the EFTA states (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Canada will eliminate or reduce duties on industrial goods and processed agricultural products respectively. In terms of trade in services, investment and public procurement, negotiations are expected to be taken up within three years of the agreement's entry into force. Alongside the free trade agreement, the individual EFTA states have negotiated agreements with Canada on agriculture.

Following the completion of the legal review of the agreement text, it is planned that the pact will be signed at ministerial level in the course of this year.

The agreement with Canada serves to consolidate the network of free trade agreements established by the EFTA states since the beginning of the 1990s. Canada will become the largest free trade partner of the EFTA states after the European Union. After the USA, Canada is Switzerland's second most important trade partner on the American continent.

For Switzerland, a country dependent on exports to diversified markets worldwide, the conclusion of free trade agreements with important partner countries - alongside membership of the WTO and the contractual relations with the European Union - is one of three main pillars in its policy of market liberalisation and of improving the framework conditions for foreign trade.

In January, Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard and ministers from the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) signed a free trade agreement with the Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry. EFTA ministers have also met with the Indonesian Minister of Trade to discuss the feasibility of a comprehensive trade agreement.

The free trade agreement between EFTA and Egypt liberalises trade in industrial products and processed agricultural products. It also contains provisions concerning the protection of intellectual property rights, competition and technical cooperation.

The Swiss government has said that the agreement concluded with Egypt, together with those already concluded with other countries from the Euro-Mediterranean area (Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia) will enable the EFTA States to continue their efforts with a view to participating in the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area, which is in the process of being established - following an EU initiative - as part of the Barcelona Declaration.