Switzerland, a resource-poor country, rose in only a few years to the world-wide biggest “turntable” for commodity trading. Switzerland is home to about 500 companies specialised in commodity trading and extraction, including giants such as Glencore, Vale, Cargill, Vitol and Trafigura. Most firms are based in Geneva, Zug and Lausanne with 10’000 employees.
It is important to understand just how big the role of Switzerland is in the global commodity business. Switzerland has a dominant position in raw material marketplace and owns the following global commodity market shares: 1/3 of oil, 60% of metal, 1/3 of wheat, 50% of sugar and 60% of coffee. With the important role Switzerland is playing in this field, the responsibilities rise as well.
Voices of the civil society and academia become louder that the Swiss state is not monitoring the big extraction and trading corporations enough. Switzerland is a tax haven, lacks transparency and regulation in the commodity sector and lacks adequate monitoring of corporations’ operations to impede human rights violations and ecological damage of extraction companies. The claim is that improving accountability and regulation of the commodity business in Switzerland could improve social, economic and political conditions in resource-exporting countries. Swiss politicians and the Swiss population need to be more aware of their role and responsibility that they have in the global commodity market and their possibilities for change.
Recommendation: Documentary of Swiss Director Daniel Schweizer, “Trading Paradise” – Released in 2016. The filmmaker travels to mining operations run by Glencore in Peru and Zambia and Vale in Brazil. Schweizer’s aim is to make aware of Switzerland’s great responsibility in the extraction and trading sector and the lack of monitoring. It is a vital contribution to the political debate on commodity trading.
Sources:
Akademien der Wissenschaften Schweiz. Swiss Academies Fact Sheets (2016). Vol. 11, No 1, p.1-8.
Bradley, S. (2016, Apr 19). Switzerland – a trading paradise? Retrieved from swissinfo.ch. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/commodities-documentary_switzerland---a-trading-paradise-/42098236
