FİVE DECADES PLEDGE FOR TURKEY: ANKARA AGREEMENT AND BEYOND

Abstract

The Association Agreement between Turkey and the European Community set the goal of establishing a Customs Union between the Parties in a 3-stages process, with the hope of Turkey’s eventual membership to the European Economic Community. Despites Customs Union envisages elimination of all barriers to free movement goods between the Parties and adoption of the common customs regime by Turkey, it requires further alignment with other freedoms such as free movement of services, capital, people and adoption of competition policy, for proper running of the Agreement. Decision No 1/95 of the Association Council that took effect by January 1, 1996 and resulted in a complete Customs Union in industrial goods, excluding agriculture, services and public procurement. The next step is integrating Turkey with the internal market of the European Union which entails free movement of not only the goods but also the services, people and capital as well. This paper aims at discussing the pros and cons of the Customs Union with the European Union in view of Turkey, with reference to past and prospective welfare results of the Agreement. In order to achieve this end, a qualitative research is carried out analysing relevant literature and statistics on the issue, and policy recommendations for both Parties are provided.