Swiss Angered Over 'New' Tax On Exports To EU

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

23 February 2004

The European Commission last week denied that it was hitting Switzerland with a new tax on exports, saying the levy has been in place for some time and recent changes amounted to a "clarification" of existing rules.

Reports indicated that the Swiss government was angered by the imposition of an apparently new tax on re-exports to the EU on certain Swiss-made products, and a spokesman for the Secretariat for Economic Affairs indicated that Bern intended to contest the move.

However, a spokesman for the European Commission later confirmed that the tax on goods re-exported to the EU from Switzerland was “not new” and that all member states, with the exception of Germany, had been imposing the tax for some time. The Commission further stated that the new measures amounted to no more than a “clarification.”

There have been suggestions that the export tax is somehow linked to the ongoing dispute between Switzerland and the EU over the negotiation of bilateral treaties linked to the savings directive. However, this was hotly contested by the Commission who denied that there was the “remotest link” between the two issues.

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