E.F.T.A. TRADE DEFICIT UP

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31249, 22 December 1966, Page 13

E.F.T.A. TRADE DEFICIT UP

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) GENEVA, December 20. The foreign trade deficit of the European Free Trade Association (E.F.T.A.) rose by 55 million dollars to 4743 million dollars in the first nine months of this year.

Figures released by E.F.T.A. headquarters here today showed that total exports by the eight E.F.T.A. partner countries increased by 77 per cent to 21,730 million dollars (£7520 million) compared with the same nine-month period of 1965, while imports grew by nearly six per cent to 26,473 million dollars (£9216 million). E.F.T.A. will complete its free-trade area for manufactured goods at the end of this year by abolishing virtually all remaining protective tariffs anff import quotas.

The eight partners Britain, Austria. Switzerland, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the full members, and Finland which is an associate member recorded, as usual, a large trade gap with the six-nation European Common Market, the statement said. Exports to the Common Market countries during the first three-quarters of this year amounted to 5681 million dollars (£2028 million) and imports 8162 million (£2822 million) —* both running about 5.5 per cent higher Ban in 1965.