Switzerland has a new chief tax negotiator. He is a Bern insider and former Red Cross humanitarian worker.
The 47-year-old Joerg Gasser will succeed long-serving diplomat Jacques de Watteville as Switzerland's highest diplomat in tax matters, or State Secretary for International Financial Matters (SIF), a position within the country's finance ministry.
Gasser spent 11 years with the Red Cross in Geneva, including stints as deputy chief delegate in Pakistan and Iraq. He switched to civil service in 2008, where he was an economic and financial affairs expert in the justice ministry and later temporary director of Switzerland's migration office.
BEPS, EU Market Access
The most pressing issues facing Gasser following the abandonment of banking secrecy under his predecessor include reforming Switzerland's corporate tax law under international pressure on base erosion and profit-shifting (BEPS), or tax strategies that exploit disconnects in tax rules from country to country with the aim of lowering a corporation's tax bill.
Gasser, who studied macroeconomics and international relations, also faces the dicey task of negotiating market access for Swiss financial firms, which has been largely on hold until the larger issue of capping immigration in Switzerland is resolved.
EU Problems
His predecessor, de Watteville, has reached retirement age, but has been tasked by the Swiss government with a broad EU negotiating mandate.
Most importantly, de Watteville must reconcile the immigration limits, voted for in February 2014 and which must be written into law by next February, with the EU's free movement of labor principle, which Switzerland agrees to as part of a host of treaties governing relations with the bloc.
