EFTA, the European Free Trade Association, became the world’s first international free-trade association in 1960.
The Stockholm Convention established EFTA and was signed on 4 January 1960. It entered into force on 3 May 1960. The founding members were Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Finland later became an associate member before becoming a full member, while Iceland joined in 1970 and Liechtenstein in 1991.
EFTA was created by countries that did not join the European Economic Community, the predecessor of today’s European Union. Unlike the EEC, EFTA initially focused on removing tariffs on industrial goods among its members rather than creating a customs union or pursuing broad political integration.
Several founding members later left EFTA to join the European Communities or the European Union, including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Portugal, Austria and Sweden. The organization today is smaller and is closely associated with the European Economic Area, which extends much of the EU internal market to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.