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Business Association Chemistry Pharma Biotech |
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Newsletter
January 11th, 2017
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scienceindustries, the Swiss Business Association Chemistry Pharma Biotech, keeps you informed about our industry's standpoints on current politico-economic and social topics. |
Topics covered
in this Issue |
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Will Brexit and the new President Trump of the USA represent a turning point?
The decision in favour of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as the new US President have created yet more uncertainty about the future direction of the world economy, which may endure for an extended period of time. It is expected that the re-organisation of the contractual agreements between the UK and the rest of the world alone will take some years to achieve. From Switzerland's point of view, we need to do all we can to secure the relationships between Switzerland and the UK via new treaty agreements (possibly a Swiss/UK free trade agreement). Sooner or later, the withdrawal of an economically important member state, such as the UK, will cause the EU to reconsider the fitness for purpose of its basic internal structures and principles. In particular, clarification is needed as to whether the unlimited freedom of movement of people is fundamentally important to the functioning of the internal market. Adopting this position could also form the basis for new discussions about the relationship between Switzerland and the EU.
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European policy: implementation model for the mass immigration initiative, with some degree of moderation
It is the view of scienceindustries that Art. 121a BV must be implemented in a business-friendly way that is also compatible with Europe. Retention of the Bilateral I agreements must continue to be the top priority in this matter. The requirement, therefore, is for a cautious form of implementation by autonomous methods that will not provoke countermeasures from the EU.
This solution will be provided by the implementation model accepted by the chambers of the Swiss federal council during their winter session. The solution envisages that any vacancies occurring in vocational groups, areas of activity and economic regions with above-average levels of unemployment must be registered with the regional employment agencies (Swiss abbreviation: RAV). With few exceptions, employers will have a duty to invite «suitable» job seekers introduced by the RAV for interview. The relevant applicants' documents will be submitted by the employment centres. The results of the interviews will have to be notified to the employment centres, but will not have to be justified.
This type of implementation does not violate the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons with the EU or impose a pre-requirement for agreement in negotiations with the EU, which avoids any connection with the EU's demand for an institutional framework agreement. Consultations will have to be held about any amendments to the constitution, presumably in association with the Federal Council's counterproposal on the RASA initiative.
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On 12th February 2017: YES to the tax reforms
Tax reforms passed by the Swiss Parliament will abolish the currently-preferred form of taxation on holding, domiciliary and mixed companies; this is no longer acceptable internationally. In future, all companies will be taxed in accordance with the same rules. The instruments envisaged for this purpose in the tax reforms – the Patentbox, the Cantonal R&D input support and interest-adjusted corporate income tax – allow the Cantons to retain their specific attractive tax status and secure their income from taxation.
As the largest research and export industry in Switzerland, scienceindustries supports the tax reforms. The tax burden will remain more or less the same overall for its member companies. If the reforms fail, the smaller exporting companies in particular could suffer from possible retaliatory measures from abroad. In addition, without tax reforms, public budgets would have to come to terms with very radical losses of income, with grave economic consequences as far as Switzerland is concerned.
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Stabilisation programme for the 2017-2019 period: Parliament shows leniency towards Education, Research and Innovation
In the winter session, scienceindustries successfully strove for Parliament to reduce the amount of savings for Education, Research and Innovation to 196 million Swiss francs as part of the stabilisation programme for 2017-2019. Originally, the Swiss Federal Council had planned disproportionate investment reductions of about 485 million Swiss francs, which was neither justified nor forward looking in the view of scienceindustries.
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Climate protection policy: Revision of the CO2 law without unilateral increase of the CO2 tax by Switzerland alone
In the opinion it delivered during the consultation process, scienceindustries stresses that, with regard to the impending revision of the Swiss CO2 law for the period from 2020 – 2030, this revision will only be supported if the following main demands made by scienceindustries are taken into account:
In the period up to 2020, the industry is expected to be the only sector to clearly achieve its reduction target; this must certainly be taken into consideration for the subsequent period. The national reduction target of 50% (in 2030, compared with 1990 as a baseline year) can only be supported if a flexibility mechanism is introduced in place of fixed sub-targets for inland reduction and foreign compensation, together with no increase in the CO2 tax to be made by Switzerland alone.
In addition, the new regulations must be as flexible as possible and include sensible simplifications in order to keep the administrative burden on business to a low level. Furthermore, any disadvantage to Swiss companies in comparison with those from abroad must be avoided at all costs.
The compensation for the CO2 tax requires a combination of the two proposed options. This combination must facilitate a growth-oriented target (specific reduction target); it must be compatible with other existing systems (both cantonal and national) and it must fundamentally allow for international certificates to be used.
No restrictions on the compensation. The compensation must not be limited to only those companies whose burden from the CO2 tax amounts to more than 1% in comparison with the salary total. This would essentially exclude many energy-intensive member companies from participation.
The cost of enforcement must be minimised: it must be possible to impose joint group targets, while random checks must suffice and the option for over-achievement must still be open.
The existing Swiss emission trading system (the «EHS») can only be continued to the extent that a linkup with the EU's ETS system is possible. Participation is only acceptable on a voluntary (opt-in) basis in order to exclude the possibility of disadvantaging our member companies (caused by scaling effects).
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VOC incentive tax burdens the economy unnecessarily and fails to show any steering effect
It is demonstrable that the VOC incentive tax no longer exerts any steering effect, as the original target for the reduction in the VOC burden has already been achieved. However, the tax continues to act as a heavy burden on business (especially since it is unique globally) and preparation of the annual VOC balance sheets by businesses gives rise to high administrative expenditure.
In conjunction with other affected industry associations, scienceindustries has worked out a specific solution approach. This envisages the transfer of the sensible technical aspects of the Swiss ordinance on clean air (the «Luftreinhalteverordnung» or LRV), which would render the VOC ordinance superfluous. By doing this, the administrative burden could be removed from the companies without any reduction in the effective environmental standard.
The proposal made by the industry was taken into consideration by the expert committee as one option for the ongoing developments. scienceindustries will continue to pursue this matter.
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The new Conduct Charter on the safe manufacture and sustainable use of plant protection products of the scienceindustries Agriculture Group Agrar
The safe manufacture and sustainable use of plant protection products have always been crucial considerations for those of our companies who work in the agricultural sector. This commitment has now also been set out in a recently-produced Conduct Charter in which BASF, Bayer, Leu+Gygax, Omya, Stähler Suisse and Syngenta all commit themselves explicitly to this approach. The Charter, which was presented in September 2016, covers the four areas of Business Culture, Research and Development, Consultancy and Social Engagement, and is aligned with the industry-wide «Responsible Care» programme.
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Action plan on risk reduction and the sustainable use of plant protection products
Concluding the consultation process on the action plan on plant protection products, scienceindustries held a media discussion in Bern on 19th October 2016. In the view of the industry, the Federal Council's proposed action plan on plant protection contains some measures that are sensible, but also some others that will need to be investigated further or rejected. As far as scienceindustries is concerned, all the measures will need to be risk-based and science-based, as well as proportionate.
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«Science on the Move» – the Switzerland-wide competition for school classes from SimplyScience
The SimplyScience Foundation is launching its fourth «Science on the Move» competition for school classes across the whole of Switzerland. This is directed at all the classes for students who have one or two years to go before their school-leaving exams, at schools throughout Switzerland. The intention is to determine which classes have most commitment and the most talent for biology or biochemistry. The class placed in first place and their teacher will be able to enjoy a science week in the United Kingdom, where a research-oriented adventure will be waiting for them! Registration is open until 27th January 2017.
You can find further information at
SimplyScience.ch.
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Dr med. Daniel Simeon is the new Director of the Secretariat of the Codes at scienceindustries
After working for over 16 years as Director of the Code Administration Department, Dr med. Felix Schwarzenbach has now made the decision to take on a new challenge. scienceindustries has engaged the services of Dr med. Daniel Simeon as his successor, and he did in fact take over direction of the Secretariat of the Codes at scienceindustries back on 1st November 2016.
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Would you like to know more about our standpoints, or ask any questions? If so, please follow us on Twitter or contact our subject specialists at scienceindustries.
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sig. Dr. Beat Moser
Director |
sig. Marcel Sennhauser
Head of Communications |
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