Geneva, capital of commodity trading — a part of the book Geneva as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos.
The second pillar of the Geneva financial centre is less visible than the first, a discretion that was for a long time deliberate. Since the 1950s, Geneva has been home to one of the world’s principal centres of commodity trading: oil and petroleum products, grains and oilseeds, sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, metals and ores. Companies whose names are unknown to the general public organise there, from unassuming offices, the shipment of cargoes worth tens of millions of dollars between producers in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East or Central Asia and consumers throughout the world. Around them, banks finance the cargoes, inspection companies certify their quality, charterers organise their transport, insurers cover the risks and lawyers draft the contracts and resolve the disputes.
Part G describes this pillar in six chapters. The first retraces the history of commodity trading in Geneva, from the pioneers of the nineteenth century to the arrival of Cargill in 1956 and the rise of the contemporary houses. The second presents the landscape of trading companies established in Geneva and in Switzerland. The third describes the trader’s profession: what the trader buys and sells, how the trader earns a living and what risks the trader takes. The fourth analyses the Geneva cluster — banks, inspection, chartering, insurance, law — which constitutes the strength of the centre. The fifth measures the economic weight of commodity trading by comparing the official statistics of the Federal Statistical Office, published for the first time in 2025, with the data of the Swiss National Bank and with earlier estimates, between which the discrepancies are considerable. The sixth examines the taxation of commodity trading and the competition from Dubai, Singapore and other centres.
This part draws on verified sources for the principal figures and historical landmarks, while flagging the information that remains to be confirmed. It leaves to Part H the detailed examination of trade finance, fraud, sanctions, the fight against money laundering, the criminal liability of companies and transparency requirements, which today constitute the most sensitive issues in the sector.
The reader who comes to this part after the preceding ones will find familiar themes: the position as a place of passage, inherited from the fairs; neutrality, which made East–West trade possible just as it had made possible the reception of refugees; documentary trust, from bills of exchange to documentary credits; dependence on external decisions, from the ordinances of Louis XI to contemporary sanctions. Commodity trading carries forward the oldest logic of the Geneva financial centre, that of a city which lives off flows that it does not produce.
This part belongs to Geneva as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
From trading post to terminal: a history of commodity trading in Geneva — overview and summary
Geneva commodity trading has a long prehistory and a short history. The prehistory goes back to the medieval fairs, described in Part A, through which spices, cloth and metals passed, and to the… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe Swiss pioneers of the nineteenth century
The Swiss tradition of commodity trading goes back, according to the account given by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, to the first half of the nineteenth century, when pioneers such as… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe Société générale de surveillance
The creation of the Société générale de surveillance was a decisive stage in the formation of the Geneva commodity-trading ecosystem. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity trading1956: the arrival of Cargill
The establishment in Geneva of Cargill, the world’s leading grain trader, marks, according to Le Temps, the beginning of a new era for commodity trading in Switzerland, in whose wake dozens of… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe agricultural traders follow
In Cargill’s wake, the other large agricultural traders settled in the Lake Geneva region, following trajectories that Le Temps has retraced. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe oil era
From the 1960s and 1970s onwards, oil trading took off in Geneva. The city became home to independent companies that bought and sold crude oil and refined products outside the integrated circuits of… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe independents of the 1990s and 2000s
The 1990s and 2000s saw the emergence in Geneva of a new generation of independent traders, often founded by executives from the major houses. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe 2010s and 2020s: growth, crises and controversies
The last two decades have been marked by considerable growth in Geneva’s commodity trading and by mounting controversy. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingAndré & Cie: rise and fall of a Lake Geneva pioneer
The history of André & Cie deserves to be recalled, because it illustrates both the early development of commodity trading on Lake Geneva and its fragilities. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe Cold War and East-West trade
Geneva’s role in East-West trade during the Cold War goes beyond the example of Cargill. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva’s commodity trading and Africa: a long-standing relationship
The relations between Geneva’s commodity trading and Africa, which Part I will explore in greater depth, go back to the years that followed independence. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTraders and producing states: a structuring relationship
The history of Geneva’s commodity trading is also the history of its relations with producing states. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva’s commodity trading and finance: a gradual convergence
The development of commodity trading in Geneva gradually transformed the financial centre. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingFederal policy towards commodity trading: three reports
For a long time the Confederation ignored commodity trading, which no law addressed and no authority supervised as such. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTraders and International Geneva
Commodity trading and International Geneva, described in Part F, grew up side by side without mixing, and then met. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe oil shocks and the birth of the spot market
Independent oil trading was born of a market rupture. Until the 1970s, oil was marketed by the large integrated companies, which extracted, transported, refined and distributed within closed chains… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingFrom traders to groups: professionalisation
The trading houses of the 2010s no longer resemble those of the 1980s. The growth in volumes, the entry of banks into their capital or their financing, the demands of the authorities and criminal… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingA chronology of Geneva’s commodity trading
DateEvent19th centurySwiss commodity trading pioneers in Winterthur, Vevey and Lausanne1915Establishment of the Société générale de surveillance in Geneva1956Arrival of Cargill; Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChecklist: understanding how a trading company is established
Identify the legal structure of the group: place of incorporation, registered office, centre of effective management, operational offices. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe landscape of the trading houses — overview and summary
Who are Geneva’s commodity traders? The question seems simple, but the answer is not. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingHow many companies, how many jobs?
The number of trading companies established in Switzerland and in Geneva varies according to the sources and the definitions used. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingA typology of commodity traders
Commodity trading companies can be classified according to several criteria: whether they are independent or belong to a group, their specialisation by product, their size and their degree of… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe giants: orders of magnitude
The large traders rank among the biggest companies in the world by turnover, a figure that reflects the value of the goods they buy and sell without conveying their value added or their profits. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva, Zug, Lugano: three Swiss centres
Swiss commodity trading is divided between three main centres, whose profiles differ. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingStructures, governance and succession
The large trading houses have distinctive governance structures, inherited from their entrepreneurial origins. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe banks and the other players in the cluster
The trading companies form only the core of the Geneva cluster, which Chapter IV will describe in detail. The banks play an essential role in it. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe trade associations
Swiss commodity trading organised itself late. Le Temps noted in February 2023 that the question of creating an association of trading companies had arisen. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingWhat draws commodity traders to Geneva
The factors that make Geneva attractive to commodity traders largely coincide with those that the preceding parts identified for the financial centre, with a few particularities. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingPortraits of trading houses
Without claiming to be exhaustive, a few portraits drawn from the publicly available information illustrate the diversity of the houses established in Geneva and in Switzerland. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingCommodity traders and their owners
The ownership of trading houses shapes their behaviour. Houses owned by their executives, such as Vitol, Trafigura or Mercuria, align the interests of managers and owners, encourage entrepreneurial… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingMid-sized traders: the diversity of the centre
Behind the giants, the mid-sized traders form the fabric of the Geneva centre. They employ from a few dozen to a few hundred people, handle substantial volumes in one or more commodities, and stand… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe oil and mining companies and their Geneva offices
The integrated oil and mining companies, whose core business is extraction and processing, maintain trading offices in Geneva responsible for marketing their production and optimising their supplies. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingCommodity traders and the Geneva labour market
Commodity trading employs a particular population in Geneva. The traders themselves, a few hundred in number, are mostly foreign, trained in the large houses or in the specialised programmes, and… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe agricultural traders of the Lake Geneva region
Agricultural trading has its own geography, which extends beyond the canton of Geneva. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingPortrait of a mid-sized trading house
Between the giants and the micro-enterprises, the centre counts dozens of mid-sized houses, employing between twenty and two hundred people and specialising by product or by region. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChecklist: assessing a trading counterparty
Identify the legal structure of the group and the contracting entity, as well as its beneficial owners and its managers. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe trader’s profession — overview and summary
What does a commodity trader actually do? The question deserves a precise answer, because the profession is little understood and often caricatured. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe commodities
The commodities traded from Geneva fall into three broad families. Energy comprises crude oil, refined products — petrol, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil —, natural gas, whether liquefied or delivered by… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe contracts
The trader works through contracts. The sales contract specifies the commodity, the quality, the quantity, the price or the pricing formula, the place and conditions of delivery, the terms of… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingHow the trader earns his living
The trader’s remuneration comes from the exploitation of differentials, which practitioners call arbitrage in the economic sense of the term. Four types of arbitrage structure the craft. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingHedging price risk
The trader’s margin comes from differentials between places, times, qualities and forms, but a movement in market prices between purchase and sale could wipe it out. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingLogistics
Trading is a craft of logistics as much as of prices. A cargo of oil must be loaded at a terminal, carried by a chartered vessel, possibly stored in a depot, and then discharged at the buyer’s… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe risks of the craft
The trader assumes many risks, and it is the mastery of these that distinguishes the durable houses from the adventurers. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe trader’s skills
The craft demands a rare combination of skills. The trader must know his commodity, its grades, its uses and its markets. He must master the financial instruments of hedging and financing. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingA day in the life of a trader
To give substance to this description, here is the outline, simplified and fictitious, of a day in the life of an oil products trader based in Geneva. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe trader’s ethics
The trader’s craft raises ethical questions that the following parts will examine in detail and that should be announced here. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe trader and the futures markets: a two-way relationship
The futures markets serve traders as a means of hedging their risks, but traders also influence those markets. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe trader in the face of crises: 2020 and 2022
Two recent crises have put the trader’s craft to the test. The pandemic of 2020 caused a collapse in energy demand, briefly negative oil prices on certain American markets, massive logistical… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe intermediaries: brokers, agents and introducers
Trading relies on intermediaries whose role is often overlooked. Brokers bring buyers and sellers together, on the physical markets as on the futures markets, and receive a commission. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTrading in liquefied natural gas and electricity
Two markets have taken on new importance since 2022. Liquefied natural gas, whose cargoes are traded like those of oil, has seen its global trade reorganised after the halt of Russian pipeline… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingMetals trading and the transition
Metals occupy a growing place in Geneva trading, alongside Zug, the traditional centre for metals. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTrading and geopolitics: straits, canals, blockades
The trader lives from the geography of flows, and that geography is a political one. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe professions around the trader
The trader is only the visible part of a team. The operator, responsible for execution, follows the cargo from loading to discharge, organises the documents, inspections, insurance and payments, and… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingWhat the trader expects from a financial centre
Because the trader is mobile, the centre must offer what cannot be found elsewhere. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChecklist: analysing a trading transaction
Define precisely the commodity, its quality, its quantity and the permitted tolerances. Fix the price formula, the market reference, the premium or discount and the pricing date. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe Geneva cluster: banks, inspection, chartering, insurance, law — overview and summary
What distinguishes Geneva from the other trading centres is the density of the services that surround its traders. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTrade finance: the bank at the heart of the cluster
Trade finance constitutes, according to the Fondation Genève Place Financière, the second pillar of the Geneva financial centre, alongside wealth management and commercial and retail banking. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingInspection: the Société générale de surveillance
Inspection guarantees that the goods delivered correspond to the goods sold. The Société générale de surveillance, established in Geneva since 1915 and presented as the world’s number one in… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChartering and maritime transport
Maritime transport is the physical link in the trading chain. Geneva, a city with no access to the sea, nevertheless houses one of the world’s principal communities of charterers, shipbrokers and… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingInsurance
Insurance covers the risks that the trader can neither avoid nor hedge on the markets: loss of or damage to cargoes, civil liability, political risks — expropriation, war, transfer restrictions — and… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingLaw: contracts, compliance, arbitration
Geneva’s law firms are an essential component of the cluster. They draft the sale, financing, chartering and storage contracts. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTraining, research and representation
The Geneva cluster also includes training and research institutions. The University of Geneva offers specialised programmes in commodity trading, supported by the sector, which train professionals… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingInterdependence and its risks
The members of the cluster are interdependent. The trader needs the bank, which needs the inspector, who needs the charterer, who needs the insurer, and all of them need the lawyers. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe weaknesses of the cluster
Several developments threaten the density of the Geneva cluster. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingWhat the cluster teaches
The Geneva trading cluster illustrates an idea that this book develops throughout: a financial centre is a system of relationships, far more than the sum of its firms. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingPhysical infrastructure: free ports, warehouses and laboratories
Geneva, a city without a seaport, nevertheless has physical infrastructure linked to trading. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe cluster and the demands of sustainability
Sustainability requirements are transforming the cluster. The financing banks incorporate environmental and social criteria into their decisions, decline to finance certain commodities — thermal… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe cantonal banks and the new financiers
The withdrawal of several large banks from trade finance, described in Part H, opened up a space that other players have occupied. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingInsurance and the London market
The insurance of trading activity, mentioned above, calls for a word of clarification. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingInspection: competition and digitalisation
The Société générale de surveillance, whose presence in Geneva since 1915 has been described, is not alone. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe cycle of a cargo through the cluster
Worked example. A Geneva trading house buys 100,000 tonnes of wheat from an Eastern European exporter for USD 25 million and sells them on to a North African importer. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe cluster and the authorities
The Geneva cluster maintains a relationship with the authorities that has grown denser over time. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs applies sanctions and controls exports; Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva, a maritime centre without a sea
The paradox of a trading centre without a port is that of chartering. Geneva is home to dozens of chartering, shipbroking and ship management companies, as well as to the shipping departments of the… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe lawyers of commodity trading
Commodity trading has given rise in Geneva to a legal specialism. The law firms of the centre have built teams devoted to international sales contracts, trade finance, security over goods, transport,… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe cluster seen from outside: what competitors and critics say
The Geneva cluster is closely observed by its competitors and by its critics. The competing centres, Dubai and Singapore foremost among them, strive to reproduce its components by attracting… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChecklist: assessing the strength of the cluster before setting up
Identify the banks active in trade finance and their terms, as well as the non-bank alternatives. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe economic weight of commodity trading: the Federal Statistical Office versus the Swiss National Bank — overview and summary
How much does commodity trading weigh in the Swiss and Geneva economies? For a long time the question received contradictory answers, varying by a factor of three depending on the sources and methods… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe historical estimates
For decades, the weight of Swiss commodity trading was known only through estimates. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe National Bank’s merchanting statistics
The principal source of the historical estimates is the merchanting statistics compiled by the Swiss National Bank as part of the balance of payments. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe Federal Statistical Office survey
In November 2023, the Federal Council instructed the Federal Statistical Office to measure the commodity trading sector by surveying around 400 companies with at least three employees. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe composition of the sector according to the Federal Statistical Office
The statistics published in November 2025 are not confined to a single overall figure. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingExplaining the gap
The gap between the CHF 58.6 billion of merchanting receipts recorded by the National Bank and the CHF 19.2 billion of value added measured by the Federal Statistical Office, both for 2024, is… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe weight of commodity trading in Geneva
For Geneva, the value added of CHF 11.2 billion measured by the Federal Statistical Office for 2024 represents a significant share of the cantonal gross domestic product. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe political stakes of measurement
The measurement of commodity trading carries political stakes. A sector that accounts for 6.7 per cent of gross domestic product justifies favourable framework conditions and regulatory caution,… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingReading a commodity trading statistic: three pitfalls
The experience of the debates on the weight of commodity trading makes it possible to identify three pitfalls into which commentators, policymakers and sometimes practitioners regularly fall. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingCommodity trading statistics and the political debate
The measurement of commodity trading has played a part in several Swiss political debates. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingA comparison with wealth management
The measurement of commodity trading can be set against that of wealth management, for which Part E gave the orders of magnitude. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe other measures: indirect jobs, tax revenue, property
Beyond value added, the weight of commodity trading can be measured by its indirect effects. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingEmployment statistics: three sources, three figures
Employment in commodity trading illustrates the difficulties of measurement. The Federal Statistical Office, in its direct survey, counts the companies whose principal activity is commodity trading,… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingValue added per job
The value added of CHF 19.2 billion measured by the Federal Statistical Office for 2024, set against the jobs in commodity trading in the strict sense, gives a value added per job in the order of one… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTax revenue from commodity trading
The tax revenue that commodity trading brings to the canton derives from two taxes. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingDo the competing financial centres measure better?
The difficulty of measuring commodity trading is not peculiar to Switzerland. Singapore publishes data on its trader accreditation programme and on merchandise trade, which include physical flows… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingProposal: a satellite account for commodity trading
The measurement of commodity trading would benefit from being complemented by a satellite account, an instrument of the national accounts that makes it possible to isolate a cross-cutting activity,… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingMethodological note on the Federal Statistical Office survey
The Federal Statistical Office survey of commodity traders, whose first monetary figures appeared in November 2025, rests on a definition, a perimeter and a method that the reader must know in order… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingCommodity trading in Geneva’s gross domestic product
The gross domestic product of the canton of Geneva, calculated by the Federal Statistical Office and analysed by the cantonal statistical office, places the canton among the most productive in… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingWhat the figures do not say
The statistics of commodity trading measure value added, jobs and revenue, but they do not measure what constitutes, for the financial centre, part of the sector’s interest. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChecklist: using commodity trading statistics
State the source of each figure: Federal Statistical Office, National Bank, umbrella association, private study. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingTaxation of commodity trading and competition between centres: Dubai, Singapore and the others — overview and summary
Taxation has always been among the factors that determine where traders establish themselves, and competition between financial centres is played out there to a large extent. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva’s taxation of commodity trading
Until 2019, most trading companies established in Geneva benefited from privileged cantonal tax regimes, the auxiliary company and mixed company statuses, which sharply reduced the taxation of… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingDubai
Within a decade Dubai has established itself as Geneva’s principal competitor in commodity trading. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingSingapore
Singapore is Geneva’s other major competitor. Since the 2000s the city-state has developed a policy of attracting traders based on an accreditation programme that grants reduced tax rates to trading… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe movements observed
The movements between financial centres have not, so far, translated into a decline of Geneva commodity trading. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva’s durable strengths
In the face of this competition, Geneva has strengths that the preceding chapters have described and that the actors of the sector emphasise. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingLondon, Houston, Shanghai and the others
Geneva also competes with other centres. London remains the historic home of the futures markets for metals and North Sea oil, of marine insurance and of trading law. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe energy transition and the Geneva centre
In the long run, the energy transition is the most important factor for the future of Geneva’s commodity trading. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingSwiss policy towards commodity trading
For a long time the federal authorities approached commodity trading with an attitude of benevolent neutrality, taking the view that it fell within economic freedom and called for no specific… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe traders and the centre: a permanent dialogue
The relationship between the traders and the Geneva centre rests on a permanent dialogue, whose terms have changed over time. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe OECD minimum tax and commodity trading
The minimum taxation of large groups, which stems from the 2021 agreement of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and has applied in Switzerland since 1 January 2024 by way of a… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe free zones of the Gulf
The Emirati model rests on free zones, territories with their own regulations, in some cases their own courts, and tax exemptions, where foreign companies can establish themselves without a local… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingSanctions as a factor in location decisions
The sanctions against Russia have introduced a new factor in location decisions. Since Switzerland adopted the European Union’s sanctions, the activities linked to Russian oil, part of which the… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingThe role of the banks in location decisions
A trader sets up where it can obtain financing. The presence in Geneva of the financing cluster described in Chapter IV is the centre’s first argument. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva’s commodity trading on the horizon of 2035
Part K proposes scenarios for the financial centre as a whole, in which commodity trading occupies a particular place. Three developments appear likely. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingZug: competition within Switzerland
Competition between centres also comes from inside the country. The canton of Zug, an hour from Zurich, is home to the headquarters of the world’s largest metals and commodities trader and to a… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingGeneva’s cantonal policy towards commodity trading
For a long time the canton of Geneva treated commodity trading with discreet benevolence, through its tax statuses and the welcome extended by its administration, without any explicit policy. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingAn example of a location decision
Worked example. A trader in refined petroleum products, established in Geneva with 80 employees, is considering in 2026 whether to open an office in Dubai for its activities in the Middle East and… Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingConclusion to Part G
Commodity trading is the second pillar of the Geneva financial centre, alongside wealth management. Read more Geneva · Geneva, capital of commodity tradingChecklist: comparing centres for the location of a trading business
Calculate the effective corporate tax burden in each centre, taking into account the minimum taxation of large groups and any approved tax regimes. Read more