EFTA or European Free Trade Association is the intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It was set up in 1960 by its then seven Member States for the promotion of free trade and economic integration between its members and the benefit of their trading partners around the globe.
The three main tasks of the Association are :
- Maintaining and developing the EFTA Convention, which regulates economic relations between the four EFTA States
- Managing the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement), which brings together the Member States of the European Union and three of the EFTA States – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – in a single market, also referred to as the “Internal Market”
- Developing EFTA’s worldwide network of free trade agreements
The four EFTA States are all open, competitive economies committed to the progressive liberalisation of trade in the multinational arena as well as in free trade agreements.
For more on EFTA click here