New sanctions against Russia have been in force in Switzerland since Wednesday

New sanctions against Russia have been in force in Switzerland since Wednesday. Among other things, transit trade with Russian oil is to be made more difficult. But: The authorities do not know exactly what this trade looks like.

On Wednesday, the Federal Council decided that it wanted to adopt the EU's latest sanctions package. This means that the import of Russian petroleum and petroleum products is now prohibited. However, that doesn't play such a big role because Switzerland hardly imports Russian oil or oil products, as SRF business editor Klaus Bonanomi explains. However, the decision indirectly restricts the global trading business with Russian oil. Because: Swiss banks and insurers are no longer allowed to finance transactions with Russian oil.

That means the step: If a commodity trader based in Geneva or Zug wants to continue trading in Russian oil, then he has to look for other financing options, for example, banks in China or Dubai. "If he wants to deliver oil from Russia to China, for example, he might find a Chinese bank that will finance or insure this transaction," explains Bonanomi. Basically, this means that the commodities trading companies based in Switzerland can continue to trade Russian oil globally, for example supplying it to India. But trade is likely to be made more difficult.

The Federal Council has also decided that there should be new statistics on commodity trading, and the state government decided. "It has been discussed for a long time," says the business editor. With the war in Ukraine and the issue of sanctions for Russian raw materials, Switzerland has come under additional international pressure. "You now want to take a closer look, because the Swiss authorities know relatively little about Swiss commodity trading." Bonanomi thinks that's actually surprising given the importance of commodities trading for Switzerland.

According to the latest edition of the "Handelzeitung", the five Swiss companies with the highest sales are commodity traders, followed only by companies like Nestlé, Novartis, ABB, and so on. "This sector is of similar importance to the financial sector for Switzerland," according to Bonanomi's comparison. «But the financial sector is supervised by the Financial Market Authority. Commodity trading, on the other hand, has hardly been so far.” By the end of the year, the Federal Council wants to create more clarity with better statistics, and better information about the business of commodities traders.

"Switzerland is tightening the screw further," sums up the business editor. On the one hand with the import ban, on the other hand with the ban on financing the global business of Swiss commodity trading groups with Russian oil.