Day One

The delegation – accompanied by the Head of the Embassy’s Economic, Finance, Science & Innovation Department – kicked off the trip in the Swiss capital, Bern.

Starting with a deep dive into the Swiss political system, the delegation then travelled to the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) to exchange with Swiss counterparts and find out more about Switzerland’s ambitious DaziT and Passar digitization programmes.

Through DaziT, the FOCBS will simplify, optimise and digitise customs processes, road tax collection and controls by the end of 2026.

Day Two

Day two’s morning session featured further discussions on the digitisation of customs procedures with colleagues at the FOCBS, plus a roundtable on mechanisms to support UK-Swiss digital trade with the umbrella organisation for the Swiss business sector, economiesuisse.

Next up, delegates heard about the Cargo Sous Terrain mega-project – which aims to take 40% of heavy goods vehicles off Swiss roads via a new underground track system.

Then it was off to Basel and the Schweizerische Rheinhäfen/Port of Switzerland – the national transport hub in the freight corridor between Rotterdam, Basel and Genoa. The three ports handle six million tonnes of goods and more than 120,000 containers per year – 10% of all Swiss imports.

The evening was spent hearing from Swiss TradeTech pioneer Nexxiot, followed by a reception hosted in collaboration with our friends at the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce.