Swiss companies are not leaving Russia because of the US sanctions but they have to be cautious if they do not want to lose access to the US market, Swiss Ambassador to Russia Yves Rossier told RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2018) Swiss companies are not leaving Russia because of the US sanctions but they have to be cautious if they do not want to lose access to the US market, Swiss Ambassador to Russia Yves Rossier told RIA Novosti.
"The situation with Russia is not the same as with Iran, where companies are leaving. The companies are not leaving Russia, not at all. Those that are doing business here are very glad to work here, I am talking about Swiss companies. However, those companies that value the US market are cautious," the ambassador said.
According to Rossier, the companies, and especially banks, do not want to risk losing access to the US market, which may be more important to them than the Russian one.
"If they violate the US law or do not abide by their sanctions, the US market will be closed to them. For lots of companies it will be the end... It is especially true for financial institutions if they cannot carry out transactions in the US Dollar," he added.
"As for the Russian capital in Switzerland, � private or business capital � there has been a wave of repatriation. It is hard to say for sure but I do not think that it happened because of sanctions. It happened due to the macroeconomic stabilization in Russia and the [Russian] Central Bank's measures," Rossier said.
According to the ambassador, the bilateral trade decreased by half between 2014 and 2017,� however the import of Swiss agricultural goods into Russia increased by 20 percent in the wake of the EU sanctions.
"However, [economic] stabilization leads to the stabilization of [trade] as well," he said.
The ambassador added that sanctions were not responsible for the slump in bilateral trade and it was a result of the economic situation in Russia and depreciating national Currency in 2014.
"I would say that, overall, the impact that sanctions have on trade is limited, I mean the real impact on Russia. Psychological influence, especially due to the US sanctions, is probably much more important, it is difficult to assess it because it cannot be seen [in numbers]. But the real influence is limited," Rossier said.
�Russia has faced several rounds of sanctions targeting its defense and financial sectors, among others, that were imposed by the United States, the European Union and several other countries over Moscow's alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and Crimea's rejoining Russia. Moscow responded by imposing its own sanctions on these countries, banning their meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and dairy products from accessing the Russian market.�
