China is in free trade talks with Iceland and will start talks with Norway, Leuthard said. Both countries are members of the four-member European Free Trade Association (EFTA), along with Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

"Such deals are important for Switzerland, given that we are not a member of the European Union, nor of the North-American NAFTA free trade zone or the Asian community of nations," Leuthard told the newspaper.

China is negotiating a range of free trade agreements, a trend that is spreading across Asia as prospects dim for a breakthrough in multilateral market-opening talks under the umbrella of the World Trade Organisation.

Switzerland has closed or is in talks over a score of trade deals, mostly through the EFTA. It has a small number of deals outside EFTA, most notably one with the European Union, and is also working on a bilateral deal with Japan.