United Kingdom to Switzerland
Checked 2026-09-28
Public law and official guidance, published as research. Not legal, tax or financial advice.
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London Good Delivery bars moving to Swiss refiners and vaults (for recasting into kilobars or custody). The UK-Switzerland Trade Agreement (CS Switzerland No.4/2019) incorporates the Switzerland-EU trade agreements and has no gold-specific provision; ordinary treatment applies (Swiss duty 0%, import VAT exempt for investment gold and refining feed per the ch module). Pair-relevant controls: Switzerland prohibits the purchase, import, transit and transport of gold originating in Russia exported from Russia after 4 Aug 2022 and of gold processed from it (Ukraine Ordinance art. 14d); LBMA keeps pre-7 Mar 2022 Russian bars in London as Good Delivery with clearing-bank attestation. The two sides' statistics diverge sharply, apparently because Switzerland attributes imports to the country of origin rather than the UK as dispatch country.
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- Secondary 1
- Researcher's note 1
Where practice departs from the law
What credible sources show happening that the law does not provide for.
Mirror gap of roughly 250 t in 2024 (UK 305 t out vs Swiss 54.7 t in). Swiss statistics appear to attribute gold to the country of origin, not the UK as dispatch country: reporting on Swiss customs data says 58 of 59 t of Kazakh gold and 30 of 130 t of Uzbek gold imported in 2023 came via the UK but were counted as Kazakh/Uzbek.
Figures: UK 305.2 t vs CH 54.7 t (2024)
SecondaryResearcher's note: The origin-attribution explanation is inferred from press reporting of Swiss data; BAZG's methodology note did not state the rule.
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