国内英语新闻:China, Switzerland make further progress in FTA talks

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Switzerland have made "great progress" in the fifth round of bilateral talks on a possible Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Ministry of Commerce said Friday.

During the May 8-10 talk, the two countries exchanged views on topics of tax cuts, service trade, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical trade barriers and intellectual property rights, reaching a series of agreements on the issues, the ministry said.

China and Switzerland formally launched bilateral FTA talks in January, with the aim of promoting economic development and closer ties between the two countries.

Trade between the two countries totaled 30.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, up 54 percent from a year earlier.

In the first quarter this year, bilateral trade reached 6.16 billion U.S. dollars, with China's imports from Switzerland hitting 5.38 billion U.S. dollars, mainly from trade of high-tech products, metal working machines, pharmaceuticals and watches.