The multilateral Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA countries and Spain came into force on 1 May 1980. The objective of the agreement was to eliminate all tariffs and other trade restrictions on substantially all the trade between the seven EFTA countries and Spain and thus to pave the way for the inclusion of Spain in the European free trade system comprising the EFTA and EC countries. The starting point for the negotiations had been the trade agreement of 1970 between the EC and Spain. Throughout the five-and-a-half years that the EFTA-Spain Agreement lasted, the main objective of the parties had been to see to it that any further concessions on industrial products given by Spain to the EC would also be granted to the EFTA countries and that any such concession by the EC to Spain would likewise be granted by the EFTA countries. The agreement thus served as a smooth preparation for the trade relations between the EFTA countries and Spain after that country's accession to the European Community. With regard to Spain the EFTA Ministers in 1985 expressed satisfaction that agreement had been reached on the accession of Spain to the Community, as a result of which the objective of the EFTA-Spain Agreement would be fulfilled. The expiration of the EFTA-Spain Agreement implied also the lapsing of the bilateral agricultural agreements concluded in connection therewith by the individual EFTA countries and Spain.