European Free Trade Association

European Free Trade Association (EFTA), customs union and trading bloc; its current members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. EFTA was established in 1960 by Austria, Denmark, Great Britain, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. Iceland joined in 1970, Finland in 1986, and Liechtenstein in 1991. This group was known through the 1960s as the "outer seven" as opposed to the "inner six" members of the European Economic Community (EEC, or Common Market; after 1967 part of the European Community [EC], which is now the European Union [EU]). It was organized largely on the initiative of Great Britain in an attempt to solve economic problems posed by the development of the EEC and Britain's exclusion from it.

EFTA began with two goals: to establish free trade among members and to seek a broader economic union with the rest of Western Europe. The first was accomplished in 1966, when most of the intra-EFTA tariffs were abolished. Negotiations toward the second goal began in 1961, when Great Britain sought entry into the EEC. Its bid was rejected (1963) by France; however, later discussions succeeded, and in 1973 Denmark and Great Britain left EFTA to join the EC. The same negotiations produced a trade accord between the newly expanded EC and the remaining members of EFTA. In 1986, Portugal also left EFTA for the EC. The development of a single market between the EU and most EFTA nations was completed in 1994, when the European Economic Area (EEA) came into being. EFTA members Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU in 1995, but in Norway the voters rejected a similar move.

European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Organization promoting free trade among its European members. Established in 1960, it comprised Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. By 1995, all but Norway and Switzerland had joined the European Union (EU), while Iceland and Liechtenstein joined EFTA in 1970 and 1991, respectively. See also European Economic Area (EEA)

European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The idea of an intergovernmental organization to reduce tariffs on trade between the non‐communist European countries was put forward by Britain in 1956. The Swiss government invited those countries who would not join the EEC (Iceland, Norway, Britain, Denmark) or, because of Soviet disapproval of the EEC and considerations of neutrality, could not (Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria) to negotiations which resulted in the Stockholm convention setting up EFTA (3 May 1960). Finland became an associate member and Portugal joined the others as full members, who managed to eliminate mutual tariffs by the end of 1966. Yet Britain applied to join the EEC in 1961. In the 1990s EFTA reached agreements with the EEC, but by 2000 only Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein remained members.