Free movement of goods

The free movement of goods has historically been the core subject of EU-EFTA relations. Prior to the existence of the EEA Agreement, the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the EU and the individual EFTA states were the sole comprehensive legal basis. Their content was the ‘ground stock’ for what became Part II of the EEA Agreement. This meant that the participating EFTA states, the EFTA-EEA state also participated in the EU’s internal market. As that entailed a whole new institutional structure, the character of the ‘Free Trade Area’ was transformed into a structure which followed the logic of the EU’s internal market very closely. In particular, the EFTA Court, without much delay, interpreted the provisions of the EEA Agreement along the lines adopted by the CJEU. The EEA Agreement, however, did not create a customs union, or entail an external trade policy. With regard to the free movement of goods, this remains one of the biggest differences compared to the EU.