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Business Association Chemistry Pharma Life Sciences |
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Newsletter
March 27th, 2019
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The quarterly newsletter of scienceindustries, the Swiss Business Association Chemistry Pharma Life Sciences, keeps you abreast of current business and social issues. |
Topics
in this issue |
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Institutional Framework Agreement between Switzerland and the European Union |
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Two plus points for Switzerland with the AHV tax proposal – vote yes on 19 May 2019 |
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Vote yes on the amendment to the EU Firearms Directive – referendum of 19 May 2019 |
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Business sector opposes indirect counterproposal to the Responsible Business Initiative |
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Revision of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) is important |
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Access to innovative therapies must be secured |
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Dual-use goods are not war material! |
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Integration of emissions trading systems of Switzerland and the EU |
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Exemption from carbon tax under objective agreements |
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Consultation process about agricultural policy from 2022 (AP22+) |
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Popular initiative "Save Switzerland from synthetic pesticides": vote no on ban of modern plant protection products |
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Institutional Framework Agreement between Switzerland and the European Union
After several years of negotiations, the Federal Council took note of the outcome of the negotiations about an institutional agreement (InstA) between Switzerland and the EU on 7 December 2018. Taking account of the consultation process, the Federal Council expects to be able to decide in mid-May 2019 whether or not it agrees with the outcome of the negotiations and wants to submit the agreement to Parliament for ratification. scienceindustries is in favour of the InstA: it is vital to the interests of Swiss Chemistry Pharma Life Sciences companies to maintain and further develop the bilateral agreements with the EU. An institutional superstructure is needed to provide the stability required in this regard. scienceindustries therefore supports the negotiated agreement while recognising the need to clarify a few points.
More information can be found here in the position paper and press release (available in German/French).
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Two plus points for Switzerland with the AHV tax proposal – vote yes on 19 May 2019
scienceindustries supports the AHV tax proposal as a balanced reaction to urgent problems in Switzerland. The cantons will be getting a tax toolbox which they can use to replace the special regulations of today by new and internationally accepted instruments such as the patent box. Cantons, cities and municipalities will also receive more financial support from the Federal government. This package will make the transition to the new tax regime as smooth as possible. Without the draft Federal law, the cantons will not receive any financial support and the only way to compensate for the missing special tax would be to reduce corporation tax. The current situation with regard to the AHV is also not sustainable as the social insurance scheme is suffering from financial difficulties. The draft law proposes a contribution by the Federal government, employers and employees to alleviate the acute financing problem of the AHV. However, to sustainably stabilise the AHV, structural measures remain urgently needed.
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Vote yes on the amendment to the EU Firearms Directive – referendum of 19 May 2019
Following severe terrorism attacks in Europe, the EU revised the current firearms legislation for the Schengen countries as one of several measures. As a Schengen country, Switzerland agreed to amend its firearms law in line with this Schengen development. scienceindustries is in favour of the new firearms law and thus of Switzerland's continued membership of Schengen, in particular because of the economic advantages granted by the Schengen agreement, the smooth processing of cross-border commuters and travellers and cross-border cooperation in the fight against crime.
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Quo vadis, Brexit?
By now, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have signed the agreement concerning the rights of citizens, the trade agreement, the insurance and road traffic agreements and the air transport agreement. The two trading partners also agreed on the mutual recognition of the conformity assessments in 3 of the 20 chapters of the Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) between Switzerland and the EU, i.e. the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and the chapter on vehicles.
On 21 March 2019, the EU-27 and the British government agreed on a dual strategy for Brexit, thus preventing the UK's unregulated exit from the EU on 29 March 2019. If the British parliament should still accept the negotiated Brexit agreement in the week of 25 March 2019, the date of Brexit will be postponed to 22 May 2019. However, if the House of Commons should not agree, Brexit will only be postponed to 12 April 2019.
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Business sector opposes indirect counterproposal to the Responsible Business Initiative RBI
From the point of view of our industry, the demands of the Responsible Business Initiative RBI with its almost unlimited possibilities of filing suit in Switzerland are excessive and should be rejected. The acceptance of the initiative and its much expanded due diligence obligations will lead to increased red tape in Switzerland and expose companies to the additional risk of legal action from all corners of the world. This would be unique in an international context and would noticeably lessen the attraction of Switzerland as a business location. The National Council's counterproposal does not definitively correct the faulty concepts of the initiative and the basis of liability is still much too open. Improvements would be needed by restricting the legal catalogue and the due diligence obligations as well as with regard to liability, subsidiarity and the reversal of the burden of proof.
Together with other business associations, scienceindustries has expressed its rejection of the RBI and the counterproposal and welcomes the decision of the Council of States to reject the popular initiative and to refrain from debating the counterproposal. A counterproposal will only make sense for the business sector if it can make improvements to the initiative and the initiators agree to withdraw the initiative. They have not been willing to date to agree to a compromise that is acceptabele to the business sector.
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Revision of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) is important
Although the National Council's Political Institutions Committee (PIC-N) has been discussing the revision of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) for some time, it has not yet been able to refer this matter to the National Council for consultation. Technological change has outpaced the law dating from 1992 and suitable amendments are needed. scienceindustries has therefore come out in favour of a revision and supports all the motions of the business sector. We also believe that the revision should be done with good judgement and should not go beyond what is necessary. Switzerland would be well advised to follow international standards so that it can continue to pursue a mostly barrier-free but still secure communication policy of the kind that is familiar and natural to the citizens and companies of Switzerland. If Switzerland should cling to its outdated data privacy legislation, different rules will apply for large and for small companies, in particular when it comes to cross-border communication. Such differences in data privacy regulation will lead to legal uncertainty and require additional efforts in implementation. We therefore welcome the acceleration in the PIC-N's debate about the FADP revision and would like to refer once again to the motions submitted by the business sector.
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Access to innovative therapies must be secured
The pharma industry is currently going through a phase in which many new and more effective medicines are launched on the market, whereby the rising prices for some of these innovative therapies are attracting public attention. This short-sighted view does not take account of the fact that these medicines represent substantial progress in the treatment of many diseases. In spite of innovative medicines, the share of medication of the total costs of healthcare has been stable for many years and the pharmaceutical industry remains committed to the three-yearly review of prices, which makes an important contribution to keeping the costs under control. In addition, more effective drugs will reduce the costs of healthcare in the long run by accelerating the healing process and eliminating the need for follow-up treatment. scienceindustries would welcome a good solution for the reimbursement of innovative therapies so that patients can be given speedy access to innovations that can be sustainably financed.
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Dual-use goods are not war material!
scienceindustries explicitly welcomes the decision of the Council of States during the 2019 spring session to reject the alignment of the exclusion criteria included in the Goods Control Act to those of the War Material Act (WMA). scienceindustries successfully campaigned for the rejection of Motion 18.3394 "Expansion of democratic basis for weapons exports". This would have put the Swiss industry at a severe disadvantage to its foreign competitors and weakened Switzerland as a manufacturing base.
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Integration of emissions trading systems of Switzerland and the EU
The Council of States resoundingly approved the integration of the emissions trading systems of Switzerland and the EU on 7 March 2019. The agreement regulates the technical details that allows the mutual recognition of emissions rights and is warmly welcomed by our member companies who participate in the Swiss emissions trading system. The European Parliament now has to vote on the agreement. At minus 14 percent, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by Swiss ETS companies makes a significant contribution to the achievement of Switzerland's emission reduction target by 2020. Expectations until 2030 of this tool of climate policy remain high (-22%).
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Exemption from carbon tax under objective agreements
Objective agreements have proven themselves as a model for success and should therefore be available to all companies. Instead of a complicated hardship provision, the option of partial compensation abroad should remain available. This option could not be exploited fully to date. Even if foreign measures should be credited in full, reduction measures and related investments in their own operations will still be more attractive for industrial companies. As a disproportionate increase in the CO2 tax would weaken our competitiveness compared to foreign locations, scienceindustries is not in favour of such a measure. A decision to discontinue the redistribution of the CO2 tax would substantially weaken the effect of the tax exemption as for many companies an objective agreement without redistribution would no longer be attractive from a business point of view. This is why we support the inclusion of this regulation in the revised CO2 law.
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Consultation process about agricultural policy from 2022 (AP22+)
The Federal Council aims to improve the agri-political framework conditions for markets, operations and the environment with the agricultural policy from 2022. Although scienceindustries generally supports this policy, the derived measures are insufficient in many respects. The benefits of modern and sustainable plant protection products are not taken fully into account. scienceindustries decisively rejects the introduction of appeal proceedings for new plant protection products as this will substantially increase the time needed for approval. This would hamper the launch of new and innovative products on the Swiss market, which would be a disadvantage for Swiss agriculture and the environment as new active ingredients are usually more specific, more effective and better for the environment.
Read more about the agricultural policy consultation process here (available in German).
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Popular initiative "Save Switzerland from synthetic pesticides": vote no on ban of modern plant protection products
The Federal Council is calling on Parliament to reject the popular initiative "Save Switzerland from synthetic pesticides" without submitting a counterproposal. Quite rightly, too. This initiative is dangerous and will harm farmers as well as consumers. The initiative is based on the simplistic assumption that non-synthetic pesticides are better. In fact, however, the safety and hygiene of the food chain in Switzerland will be very difficult to guarantee without the use of synthetic pesticides, which include cleaning agents and disinfectants (biocides). Many products and foodstuffs will have to be taken from the market. A ban on synthetically produced pesticides is also senseless from a business as well as a scientific point of view: the fact that a pesticide is synthetic does not say anything about its toxicity.
Please see this press release for more information (available in German/French).
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scienceindustries is the Swiss business association for the chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Its around 250 member companies generate more than 98% of their revenues abroad. As Switzerland's biggest export industry, this sector contributes 45% to total exports and almost 40% to private research expenses in Switzerland.
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Dr. Stephan Mumenthaler
Director |
Marcel Sennhauser
Deputy Director |
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