News For the first time, the FH general meeting was proud to welcome a member of the Federal Council, Mr Pascal Couchepin, head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (at centre of photo by M. Friederich - Journal du Jura). Earlier, president François Habersaat (on right of photo) had announced his optimistic forecast for a new record year for the industry, while the association's director, Mr Jean-Daniel Pasche (on the left), outlined the current situation on the watch counterfeiting front.
The FH's ordinary general assembly was held on 22 June in the historic rooms of Colombier Castle (NE). An appropriate setting as the year 2000 is shaping up to be an historic, record-breaking year for the Swiss watch industry. This, in any case, is what Mr François Habersaat forecast, with overall exports rising between 3% and 5% to approximately 9.4 thousand million francs, compared to a little over 9 thousand million last year. An almost perfect situation, especially if one takes into account the manifold opportunities offered by such developing countries as China, India and Russia as well as those in Latin America, which have a combined population of 2.6 billion inhabitants!
Moving towards a single association?
This attractive situation, however, should not prevent the industry from preparing for the future by laying the necessary groundwork now. FH president François Habersaat wondered: "Is our organisation in a position to meet the challenges that await us? Are our present structures adapted in such a way that we can manage our institutions in a modern and efficient manner? The decision taken last year to make the FH and GIP one entity has been greeted with considerable satisfaction…. But can we imagine the creation of a single and very powerful association in the long term, incorporating all the players in our sector? We should not forget that we are the country's third major exporter after the machine and chemical industries, both of which have restructured themselves in a single organisation! To improve our performance even further, we must create a modern organisation for the whole industry. We cannot ignore such a development and must realise it step by step in a calm and thoughtful framework."
Crucial struggle
For his part, Mr Jean-Daniel Pasche, the FH's director, covered the association's various information and promotional activities (FH Revue, website, fairs and exhibitions, centres and journalists abroad, etc) before dealing with the difficult issue of the fight against counterfeiting: "I believe this scourge will be with us for a long time to come; it will continue to mobilise its forces and financial power against its victims, the individual watch companies. Nevertheless, knowing that this problem is not going to disappear overnight does not mean sitting back and doing nothing. This, in fact, would be suicidal because the models targeted would soon be submerged by counterfeit copies and this would damage the brands' image and reputation and undermine the public's confidence in them."
After visiting various places around the world where counterfeiting is rampant, Mr Pasche concluded that Switzerland can also serve as a transit country for counterfeit products. Customs officials once seized a shipment of 1,400 kilos of counterfeit watches at Kloten airport. Furthermore, they have intercepted several dealers in possession of copies that also contravened Swiss Made legislation. If the FH does not automatically act in cases where the rights of brands and models have been infringed, it does intervene in cases where Swiss Made legislation has been violated. Regarding these cases, it has filed over thirty claims against transiting dealers to have the merchandise seized and destroyed. All this has borne fruit because customs officials have had to make fewer seizures. It should be pointed out, however, that this reduction is also due to the fact that dealers change their itineraries.
"The success of the combat against counterfeiting in Switzerland matters a great deal to us because it sets an example. That is why we heartily support the Federal Council's new draft bill on designs as this will provide our watches with greater protection. However, there is a serious deficiency in the bill because it does not provide for the seizure by customs officials of watches acquired by tourists for their own ends. As tourism is an important purveyor of counterfeit goods, we are going to use the Vorort framework to call upon Parliament to correct this oversight. Customs officials can easily deal with this problem without increasing the number of inspections or slowing down customs clearance. It is most unfortunate that a customs officer who notices a counterfeit object is prevented by the law from seizing it."
Statutory elections
As far as the statutory part of the assembly was concerned, the delegates unanimously accepted the 1999 annual report and accounts, as well as the membership fees for 2001, which remains the same except for the sector-based associations (UBAH), for which the lump sum is replaced by an open-ended salary-based system. The assembly also renewed its confidence for a further year in the auditors, Fiduco SA.
The final point on the agenda was the elections. Mr François Habersaat was re-elected president for a new three-year statutory period. For the same period, the board will comprise the following twenty members, with the names of their deputies in brackets (their company is not mentioned if it is the same as the incumbent's): Franziska Borer Winzenried Rolex BE (Claude Gygax), Alain Cerutti Rolex GE (Ulrik von Barnekow), Marc Küffer Roventa-Henex (Heinz Kulli Multitime), Hugues-Olivier Borès Patek Philippe (François-Claude Tissot Chopard), Gerhard Iseli IWC (Christian Wehrli Desco), Hans-Peter Rentsch Swatch Group (Jacques-Alain Voirol), Roland Streule Rado (Hans-Rudolf Sutter), Georges Crevoisier SAH (Jean-Pierre Hagger), Jean-Paul Girardin Breitling (Dominique Stoll), Christian Viros LVMH (Pierre Brunner), Franco Cologni Richemont (Claude Vuillemez), Albert Kaufmann Richemont (Yves-Gérald Piaget), Erich Mosset Ronda (Christopher Bitterli Grovana), Roland Bloch Swatch Group (Edgar Geiser), Kaspar Glatthard ETA (Beat Aebi), Claude Wampfler Doniar (Claude Calderari Stettler), Willy Steiner Beyeler (Alain Marietta Metalem), Roland Dubois Nivarox (André Hämmerli), Marc Reynaud Metalor (Jean-L. Guillod Guillod-Gunther), Lucien Iseli Universo (Renaldo Ciampi Brillor).
Before handing over to Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin for his speech (L'économie suisse face aux enjeux européens et mondiaux), Mr Habersaat announced that next year's ordinary general assembly would be held in Geneva on 28 June.
July 05, 2000
