By John Revill BERN (Reuters) -The Swiss arms industry is calling for looser restrictions on resale of its goods as weapons exports fell in 2024 for a second year, fueling concern the neutral country is falling behind as Europe ramps up defence spending over the war in Ukraine. Matthias Zoller, who is responsible for the […]
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Swiss arms exports fall as government mulls looser curbs after Ukraine war
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By John Revill
BERN (Reuters) -The Swiss arms industry is calling for looser restrictions on resale of its goods as weapons exports fell in 2024 for a second year, fueling concern the neutral country is falling behind as Europe ramps up defence spending over the war in Ukraine.
Matthias Zoller, who is responsible for the armaments sector at industry association Swissmem, said neutrality laws were holding Switzerland back from valuable contracts.
Germany, the largest buyer of Swiss arms, has excluded Swiss companies from some procurement deals, while Denmark and the Netherlands have halted orders, said Zoller, speaking before the government on Tuesday released export figures for 2024.
Swiss war material exports dropped 5% to 665 million Swiss francs ($754.74 million) from 696.8 million francs in 2023, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.
In 2023, exports plunged 27% from 955 million francs of guns, ammunition and other arms materials sold a year earlier.
“There’s a big surge in defence spending in Europe, and Switzerland will miss out,” Zoller said. “It’s a disaster for the industry but also the country’s defence capabilities.”
Swissmem’s members include military suppliers like Rheinmetall and Safran Vectronix.
Under neutrality laws and the Swiss war materials act, weapons cannot be sent directly to countries involved in armed conflict, and re-export of previously sold weaponry is also blocked. That has prevented transfers of anti-aircraft ammunition, for example, from Germany to Ukraine.
Thierry Burkart, leader of the centre-right Free Liberal Party, described the restrictions as “completely absurd.”
“This harms us enormously, not only our industry, and our defence capability, which we need to work on, but also our contribution to European security, while remaining neutral,” Burkart told Reuters.
Despite the curbs, Switzerland has been a significant arms exporter, specialising in ammunition and armoured vehicles.
The Swiss government is now mulling whether to relax its restrictions “in extraordinary circumstances” as well as to limit the re-export restriction to five years after they have been delivered.
Swissmem described the proposals as insufficient to support an industry reliant on exports.
($1 = 0.8811 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by John Revill, additional reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Bernadette Baum)