The Consultative Committee was one of the earliest of EFTA's institutions. EFTA was always fundamentally a trade association yet it needed some machinery whereby the Council could keep in touch with, and avail itself of the advice of industry, commerce and the trade unions in all the EFTA countries.
The Committee kept in close touch with the day-to-day work of the Association while following developments in regard to European integration. It worked closely with the Economic Committee and the Economic Development Committee. Furthermore, in its meetings with the EEC it worked with its closest counterpart, the Economic and Social Committee.
Members of the Consultative Committee were active in the following areas: employment and social policy, the single market, energy, enlargement and economic and monetary union.
It provided a forum for representatives of industry, commerce and labour in the EFTA states to exchange views among themselves and with the Council

The Economic and Social Sub-Committee studies the economic inter-dependence of the EFTA countries and of the EC, the elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade.

The Consultative Committee was concerned with: implementation of Convention (trade and customs questions, agriculture and fisheries, rules of competition), EFTA cooperation in other fields (Economic and Social Sub-Committee, production, different price levels for consumer goods in EFTA, industrial mobility,European Company law, the UK balance of payments problem, the effects of tariff dismantling, invisible transactions and transfers, double taxation, patents, the Portuguese iron and steel industry), external relations (EFTA parliamentarians, Council of Europe, Nordic Council), information activities.
The material from the sub-committee of the Consultative Committee is concerned with EFTA cooperation with other international organisations.