Switzerland - Foreign trade

Switzerland's annual trade balance is habitually in arrears, owing to the economy's reliance on large quantities of imported raw materials for industry. Switzerland's export commodities are split into two categories: machinery sold to other manufacturers, and commodities used by consumers. The country exports a large number of the world's watches and clocks. The top 10 exports are listed below:

	% OF COUNTRY TOTAL
Medicinal and pharmaceutical
products	13.1
Watches and clocks	7.4
Other machinery for special industry	3.5
Metalworking machinery and tools	3.3
Nitrogen	2.7
Measuring and controlling instruments	2.4
Switchgears	2.2
Textile and leather machinery	1.8
Gold, silver ware, and jewelry	1.8
Pearls, precious and semiprecious stones	1.6

In 2000 Switzerland's imports were distributed among the following categories:

Consumer goods	23.7%
Food	4.9%
Fuels	4.5%
Industrial supplies	32.2%
Machinery	23.1%
Transportation	11.4%
Other	0.2%

Principal trading partners in 2000 (in millions of US dollars) were as follows:

COUNTRY	EXPORTS	IMPORTS	BALANCE
Germany	17,488	24,334	-6,846
United States	10,680	6,555	4,125
France	7,204	8,542	-1,338
Italy	6,276	7,766	-1,490
United Kingdom	4,609	4,874	-265
Japan	3,457	2,354	1,103
China (inc. Hong Kong)	3,144	1,916	1,228
Austria	2,492	2,965	-473
Netherlands	2,489	4,733	-2,244
Belgium	1,546	2,485	-939