EU remains strict on Swiss medical products Stadler Rail wins large order in Kazakhstan

On Wednesday in Brussels, Switzerland and the EU discussed the mutual recognition of conformity assessment (MRA) as part of the Joint Committee. The EU continues to refuse to update the Medical Devices Agreement.

As of May 26, 2021, Swiss medtech companies no longer benefit from privileged access to the EU’s internal market. Because by then the MRA should have been updated, which the EU rejected. She justified this with insufficient progress on institutional issues.

For its part, Switzerland “reaffirmed its demand for an update of the relevant chapter of the MRA and found that the terms of the agreement have been met,” according to a press release from the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (Seco).

The agreement concluded in 1999 between Switzerland and the EU is part of the so-called “Bilaterals I”. It avoids the “double certifications and the manufacture of different product lines for the Swiss and EU markets”, as Seco continues to write. This facilitates market access and saves costs.

“The sectors covered by the MRA accounted for about two-thirds of trade in industrial products between Switzerland and EU member states by 2021.” According to Seco, the 20 product areas covered by the agreement represented an export volume to the EU of more than CHF 90 billion for Switzerland in 2021 and, conversely, an import volume from the EU of more than CHF 75 billion.

(jam/sda)