Turkey has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with 17 countries up to now, including EFTA countries, Israel, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia, Chile, Jordan, and Lebanon. All these FTAs, except the one with Lebanon, are in force. Turkey-Lebanon FTA will come into force after the completion of approval process.
Source: Ministry of Economy
In addition, negotiations for FTAs with 12 other countries and country blocks continues (Gulf Cooperation Council, Ukraine, MERCOSUR, Libya, Seychelles, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Korea, Malaysia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Faroe Islands). There are also attempts for starting negotiations for FTAs with 11 countries and country blocks, including Algeria, Mexico, SACU, ASEAN, Indonesia, Peru, Organization of Central American States, ACP Group of States, Moldova, India, and Canada. The negotiations with Mauritius are completed and the aggrements is initialised, expecting both countries to sign the agreement within 2011.
Statistics show that Turkey’s foreign trade increased more with countries, which FTAs has been signed with, compared to the general foreign trade rate of Turkey. Between 2000 and 2010, the increase of foreign trade volume of Turkey was 264%, while it was 327% with FTA countries. This means Turkey’s trade volume with FTA countries increased from $4.9 bln in 2000 to $21 bln in 2010.
Regarding the the effects of FTAs on export and import numbers, Turkish exports to FTA countries increased from $2.1 bln in 2000 to $11 bln in 2010. The same trend can also seen for Turkish imports from FTA countries concerning the increase from $2.7 bln in 2000 to $8.4 bln in 2010.
