Switzerland has 35 free trade agreements (FTAs) with 45 countries or blocs. Some benefit more than others from favourable tariff arrangements. Switzerland’s willingness to participate in free trade deals can be traced backed to the beginnings of European integration after the Second World War. Frustrated by the lack of progress within the European Economic Community (the predecessor of the European Union), the Alpine nation joined Britain, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Portugal and Sweden to create a multilateral body with the goal to remove trade barriers: the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The EFTA Convention was signed in November 1959 in Stockholm and came into force in May 1960. Full free trade in industrial goods among EFTA countries was achieved in 1966, a year before the European Economic Community accomplished its own customs union. A happy union between EFTA and the EU was achieved in 1972, when the two rival blocs signed a free trade deal with each other. Since then ...
