EU industrial push strains ties with Switzerland and Norway

The European Union’s closest economic partners are warning Brussels that its increasingly protectionist industrial policies risk shutting them out of a single market they have spent decades integrating with. Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein have built close economic relationships with the bloc, accepting swaths of EU rules and contributing billions to European programmes in return for varying degrees of access to its 450 million consumers. But as Brussels responds to competition from China and the US with subsidies, tariffs and “Made in Europe” requirements, that model is coming under strain. Measures intended to protect European industry from foreign competition are increasingly catching neighbouring countries whose economies and supply chains are deeply entwined with the EU. “EU initiatives are increasingly oriented towards ‘Made in EU’ requirements,” Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs told the FT, arguing that new measures should take account of ...