EFTA, CEFTA - próba porównania dwóch stref wolnego handlu

Abstract

The aim of the works is to present free trade areas, the European Free Trade Area and the Central European Free Trade Area, as far as their similarities and differencies are concerned. The EFTA, the group in the process of its activity decline and the CEFTA, which has been operating for two yean, have two important common features. Firstly, both of them are only a preliminary stage for the countries trying to become members of the European Community and secondly they constitute a free trade area. But on the other hand we can notice substantial differencies between them. At the moment of setting up the organizations, both the level of the social, economic and political development of the EFTA and the CEFTA countries and volume of their mutual commodities exchange were not equal. In the 1960s the EFTA became an alternative for the West European countries, which did not want to or just could not join the EEC. The CEFTA came into being as the consequence of the important event in Central Europe - some post-socialist countries signed the European Agreement with ihe EEC. The lack of similar agreement among these countries could cause disadvantages in Ujeir mutual trade. There was also the political reason - the East European countries were afraid of the possible restoration of the powerful, eastern neighbour. This article is an attempt o f answering the question: are the similarities between the EFTA and the CEFTA so strong, thal we are given the right to identify one group with the other?