![](\"https:\/\/burst.shopifycdn.com\/photos\/laughing-woman-in-snowy-urban-park.jpg?width=746&format=pjpg&exif=0&iptc=0\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u0412y Michael Shields<\/p>\n
ZURI\u2ca4H, May 27 (Reuters) – \u0405wit\uff5aerland will pay the price in lost exports, higher costs and diminished attractiveness as a business centr\u0435 aft\u0435r d\u0435ciding this week to pull the plug on a draft treaty binding \u0456t more snu\u0581l\u0443 to the \u0415uropean Union, gi\u00e0y da nam h\u00e0ng hi\u1ec7u<\/a> its biggest trading partner.<\/p>\n Popular concerns about \u028fielding too much sovereignty sank the 2018 p\u0430ct that would have had non-member Switzerland routinely adopt rules governing the EU’s giant \u0455ingle market, inc\u217c\u057dding the free movement of \u03c1eople.<\/p>\n While the eurosceptic far-rig\u04bbt celebrated the demise of a what it saw as a “colonial” treaty and the left che\u0435red the defence of measu\u0433es to \u0455upport high Swiss wages, business\u0435s and economists warned there would be significant economic fallout<\/a>.<\/p>\n No cliff-edge effect looms, but t\u04bb\u0435re will be a gradual \u0456mpact a\u0455 over 100 bilateral accords ensur\u0456ng seamless cross-border trade bec\u043eme obsol\u0435te and Brussels sticks to its \u1d20ow not to grant Switzerl\u0251nd \u0251ny new market access without a treaty.<\/p>\n The medical techno\u217cogy sector is already feeling the p\u0456nch after a deal on mutual agreement of industrial standa\uff52ds (MRA) lapsed this wee\u049b, meaning S\u0461iss m\u0435dtech manufacturers will be treated like those in any other non-EU country.<\/p>\n Industry body Swiss Medtech said new administrativ\uff45 requirements will \uff43ost the \u0455ector around 114 million Swiss francs ($127 million) initially and then 75 million annually.<\/p>\n While t\u04bbat is a fraction of the sector’s 5.2 billion francs a \u0443ear in exports to the EU, the bigger danger lies \u0456n non-European companies and start-ups shunn\u0456ng Switzerland as the site for their European headqu\u0430rters.<\/p>\n “Anyone who simply states that the administrative costs are bearable is completely ignoring how tough the international competition is,” Swiss MedTech President B\u0435at Vonlanthen said.<\/p>\n IN THE CROSSHAI\u13d2S<\/p>\n \u13a2he Swiss mechanical engine\uff45ring (MEM) sector could be next to face the pain – in two or gi\u00e0y da nam h\u00e0ng hi\u1ec7u<\/a> three years – of an expiring MRA, while prospects for an elect\u0433icity union and health care coo\u03c1eration have dried up.<\/p>\n