Free trade agreement with Malaysia: Switzerland imperils the rights to food and health

^{Open letter to State Secretary for Economic Affairs Helene Budliger Artieda and to the relevant members of the Federal Council.}

In early April, the European Free-Trade Association (EFTA) states – which includes Switzerland – and Malaysia concluded their negotiations on a free trade agreement. Now, a leak of its annex on the protection of intellectual property shows that the agreement contains several damaging provisions on intellectual property:

• The EFTA states are calling on Malaysia to become part of the 1991 UPOV convention. This would severely restrict small-scale farmers’ free exchange of seeds. By insisting on this clause in free trade agreements, Switzerland is creating considerable obstacles for the right to food, as the UN Special Rapporteur on this human right warned yet again in 2024. The Swiss coalition on the right to seeds has been calling on the Federal Council for years to remove this requirement from agreements with countries of the Global South.
• Malaysia's population could also be increasingly deprived of access to affordable medicines, as the agreement contains various provisions on patent rights that would restrict Malaysia's sovereignty over its public health policy. These TRIPS+ provisions go beyond the standards established by the multilateral TRIPS agreement and would only benefit pharmaceutical corporations by delaying market entry of affordable generic drugs.

In letters to their government, over 30 civil society organisations in Malaysia have already warned of the consequences these provisions would have for the Southeast Asian country. In an open letter addressed to Seco’s State Secretary Helene Budliger Artieda, Public Eye and five other Swiss NGOs are calling her to actively engage within EFTA and drop these harmful provisions before signing the agreement.

• Open letter