WESTERN EUROPE: Outer Seven & a Half

Having done their homework well, and being of one mind, economic ministers of the Outer Seven needed only two days last week at the Swedish resort of Saltsjoebaden to agree on the essentials of their European Free Trade Association (TIME, July 27). Member nations hope to have the final draft by October and to announce their first common tariff reductions, to be effective next July. They made no bones about their real purpose: "To facilitate negotiations" with the bigger, booming Common Market Six (France, West Germany, Italy, Benelux) and thus head off a permanent division of European trade.

So inviting...

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