EFTA was established as a free trade organization for those western European countries who were not able to and chose not to be a part of the European Economic Community (Today's EU). The main difference between EU and EFTA was that EFTA did not set a common custom tariff, thus leaving it up to each country to decide this independently. Seven nations signed the agreement on the "Stockholm Convention" held January 1960. On May 3 was the organization officially established. Those nations who originally joined were United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal. Several other nations joined EFTA in the years which followed, but in more recent time most of the nations left to join the EU instead of. The nations left in EFTA today is Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. But perhaps United Kingdom will once again join EFTA if they choose to leave EU in the upcoming referendum?
No comments:
Post a Comment