İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

15 May 2010

CUSTOMS UNION: CUSTOMS UNION: PERSPECTIVES FOR TURKEY PERSPECTIVES FOR TURKEY

AND THE EUAND THE EU

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

What are you going to hear?

1. Background: A very short history of the CU

2. What has changed today: problems and future prospects

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Turkey-EU Customs Union

• More than a trade agreement

• Political and economic integration

• Full membership

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Economic motivations • The CU would anchor Turkey to the West in a definitive and

irreversible way and it would be better placed to argue that it is a prime candidate to be at the head of the next enlargement;

• It would help modernize a large part of Turkey’s economic legislation giving rise to important micro and macro-economic dynamics;

• It would open and consolidate the Turkish market in a privileged way for EU producers but at the same time, Turkey would become an investment and export base for neighboring regions enabling Turkish companies to penetrate and operate in those markets.

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Re-negotiating the CUEgemen Bağış, Chief negotiator on February 19,

2010

“we decided to kick off the preliminary work to review [the CU] issue with the EU”

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Today• The critical question that has to be

answered is what should replace those features of the CU that have so successfully prepared Turkey for the globalisation of 2000s and that helped Turkish industry became what it is today.

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Turkey’s choice

• Lower democracy standards and domestic social disturbances

or

• Expanding the spectrum of tradable goods and becoming a player in the global markets

İKV

İKTİSADİ KALKINMA VAKFIECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Thank you for your attention!

CAN MINDEKResearcher, IKV