The government has approved measures to compensate Swiss exporters who get their fingers burned abroad. Under these plans, exporters would be able to cover their risks on orders from private companies. At present, they can only do so on orders from state-owned enterprises
The government-run Export Risk Guarantee scheme is designed to make it easier for exporters to do business in countries where political or economic instability could jeopardise receipt of payment. But it doesn’t cover all eventualities.
“At present, the Swiss export risk agency can only cover public risks, which is a disadvantage to Swiss exporters because all the other export credit agencies of OECD countries can cover the private-buyer risk,” said Beatrice Maser at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) in Bern.
