Parliament continues laissez-faire towards Switzerland’s commodities sector

Zurich, Lausanne, 19. March 2025

Three years into Russia’s bloody war of aggression against Ukraine, Switzerland is definitely refusing to leverage its economic policy and live up to its responsibility as one of the largest trading hubs in the world. Today, its Council of States rejected a motion calling for a regulation of the commodities sector. It thus accepts that Switzerland’s prosperity is partly generated by companies whose activities are also based on exploitation and shifting profits from the Global South. These very companies are thriving as the world becomes ever more deeply embroiled in conflicts and crises.

Today, the upper chamber of Parliament rejected a motion from the Swiss Socialist Party, which was tabled in March 2022. Immediately after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the motion wanted to establish a legal framework for the commodities sector with a view to tackling the numerous abuses, preventing further scandals and therefore safeguarding Switzerland’s international reputation. In September 2023, a majority of the National Council (the lower chamber) supported the core demand of the motion – likely mainly due to the numerous revelations about Switzerland’s close ties to Russia’s commodity trade and its oligarchs. 

Eighteen months on, the Swiss Parliament has now stopped paying lip service to all those people who are exposed to the adverse effects of Switzerland’s unregulated commodities sector. Shortly after the Swiss Finance Minister thanked the commodity traders for the additional tax revenues from 2022 and 2023, the Council of States refused to “avoid those mistakes that have cost us dearly in the banking sector” – hence the title of the motion – and rejected it by 33 to 11 votes. Thereby, Switzerland disregards that Swiss-based commodity traders have profited from the current crises and war and have reaped record-high profits in recent years precisely because millions of people across the globe have had to pay massively increased food and energy prices. Not to mention all the other abuses in the commodities sector that Public Eye has been criticizing for years. 

But none of this has ultimately spurred the authorities into action. Consequently, Switzerland is intent on continuing to profit from its commodity trading hub without hesitation or regulation, which, after all, usually only occurs at the expense of more vulnerable countries and people. Parliament is still loath to impose any guardrails on the business activities abroad of Glencore, Trafigura & Co. But the profits reaped from the crises are gladly being collected, because that is and remains the business model followed by Switzerland. 

Within the rapidly changing world order, however, this model is no longer viable. Economic opportunism must be replaced by a value-based economic policy that respects human rights, reinforces global social justice and secures livelihoods for future generations. 

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