Turkey, UK to sign free trade agreement, PM says

Visiting the U.K. to discuss regional problems and boost bilateral cooperation between Turkey and the U.K., Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced that Turkey and the U.K. are going to strike a free trade deal.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proven to be one of the best ways to open up foreign markets to Turkish exporters.

In addition to the Customs Union with the EU, which was signed in 1995, Turkey has signed FTAs with Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, the EFTA, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Serbia, South Korea and Tunisia. Additionally, the FTAs signed with Lebanon, Kosovo, Moldova and the Faroe Islands are under ratification. Elsewhere,FTA negotiation with Ghana was concluded and is expected to be signed soon.

There are 13 countries or blocs that Turkey has started FTA negotiations with; namely, Peru, Ukraine, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Seychelles, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Libya and MERCOSUR., Turkey has also launched initiatives to start negotiations with 10 countries/country blocs, which are the U.S., Canada, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Central American countries, other ACP countries, Algeria and South Africa.

Turkey is planning to add the U.K. to this list as announced by the prime minister who informed that soon, teams will soon be composed to work on the FTA.

In 2016, the biteral trade volume between the U.K. and Turkey reached $17 billion; an increase of 5.7 percent over 2015. The U.K.'s share in the total Turkey foreign trade rose from 4.6 percent to 5 percent. Still, addressing investors in a meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Yıldırım underscored that the two countries will increase this trade volume to $20 billion in the short term.