Common Market: Meaning and Definition of

Com'mon Mar'ket

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. Official name,an economic association established in 1958 and originally composed of Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany, created chiefly to abolish barriers to free trade among member nations and to adopt common import duties on goods from other countries: the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Denmark joined in 1973, Greece joined in 1981, and Spain and Portugal joined in 1986. Abbr.: CM
  2. (sometimes l.c.) any economic association of nations created for a similar purpose.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.