Evaluation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union

Report (World Bank Group) No. 85830-TR                                                               Türkçe

March 28, 2014

The report, Evaluation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union, which was funded by the European Commission, highlights the impacts of this pioneering agreement since it was first implemented nearly 20 years ago. Most notably, economic analysis shows that under an FTA, exports from Turkey to the EU would have been up to 7.2 percent lower, with EU exports to Turkey as much as 4.2 percent lower. But while the value of bilateral trade between the two has increased dramatically, the changing global economy is exposing issues that the CU should now address—specifically the need to expand the trade arrangement beyond most industrial goods to also cover agriculture and services and the need to formalize parallel negotiations on FTAs with third countries. These changes would help both parties adapt to the growth in global trade, the increasing role of emerging market economies and the eastward expansion of the EU, according to Ian Gillson, Senior Trade Economist in the World Bank’s International Trade Unit and lead author of the report.

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