The analogy makes perfect sense. They're both instances of a relatively small area with very tight historical ties to a much larger region. The relationship be

The analogy makes perfect sense. They're both instances of a relatively small area with very tight historical ties to a much larger region. The relationship between the local economies and the regional economies bears enlightening similarities. US states are not sovereign nations. but the analogy b/w EU member states and US states still makes perfect sense in some economic discussions. The analogy is useful. A more apt criticism of the analogy might be "Switzerland's economy is not tightly integrated and dependent on the EU's economy" or "Switzerland has lots of tariffs", but neither of those things is true.