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Azerbaijani-Swiss trade rises despite COVID-19

Business Materials 6 July 2020 22:00 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijani-Swiss trade rises despite COVID-19

BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 6

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Bilateral trade between Switzerland and Azerbaijan rose by 23 percent year-on-year despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the effects of the pandemic are being felt all over the world. In March 2020, the bilateral trade turnover (data including precious metals) collapsed by nearly 79 percent compared to the same period last year and in April, the trade volume was 45 percent lower than in April 2019. In May, an increase of over 23 percent compared to the same period of the previous year was registered. This increase can be explained by precious metal imports from Azerbaijan,” Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs told Trend.

SECO said the pandemic demonstrated that, particularly in a state of global crisis, a rules-based international trade system is key to keep the world trade infrastructure working.

“The most reliable and resilient solution to addressing possible shortages of supply e.g. of medical equipment or vaccines are not protectionist measures but quite the contrary: more international cooperation, strong multilateral organisations, market openness and coordination. These should be further strengthened with a view to tackle future challenges such as the pandemic - that affect us all.”

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