General Knowledge - Basic General Knowledge - Discussion

The European Free Trade Association (or EFTA) is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union (EU). The EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable or unwilling to join the then-European Economic Community (EEC) which has now become the EU. The Stockholm Convention, establishing the EFTA, was signed on 4 January 1960 in the Swedish capital by seven countries (known as the "outer seven").

Today's EFTA members are Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland-the latter two being founding members. The initial Stockholm Convention was superseded by the Vaduz Convention, which provides for the liberalisation of trade among the member states.

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union (EU). EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable to, or chose not to, join the then-European Economic Community (EEC) which has now become the EU. The Stockholm Convention, establishing EFTA, was signed on 4 January 1960 in Stockholm by seven countries.

The founding members of EFTA were Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. During the 1960s these countries were often referred to as the Outer Seven, as opposed to the Inner Six of the then-European Economic Community (EEC).
Finland became an associate member in 1961 (becoming a full member in 1986) and Iceland joined in 1970. The United Kingdom and Denmark joined the EEC in 1973 (together with Ireland), and hence ceased to be EFTA members. Portugal also left the EFTA for the European Community in 1986. Liechtenstein joined in 1991 (previously its interests in EFTA had been represented by Switzerland). Finally, Austria, Sweden and Finland joined the EU in 1995 and thus ceased to be EFTA members.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Association#Membership_history

EFTA: European Free Trade Association

Can anyone give abbrevation and some related information about EFTA?