Associating Turkey with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: A costly (re‐) engagement?

Abstract

Policy debate on the implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) for Turkey has focused almost exclusively on “how” Turkey can/will take part in a forthcoming transatlantic deal. Turkey's association with a TTIP has largely been conceived as an inevitable and beneficial policy choice to re‐engage Ankara with the Atlantic alliance and emerging transatlantic trade framework. The arguments for extending TTIP to Turkey have mostly been built upon a conventional understanding of preferential trade agreements. The debate has not provided a comprehensive assessment of costs and benefits for Turkey's exclusion from or joining TTIP as it dismissed multiple dimensions of the “deep integration” agenda which underpined the transatlantic talks. This paper intends to contribute to the “why” debate with a thorough analysis of critical issues on the transatlantic agenda by evaluating economic and policy implications of TTIP both for exclusion and association scenarios together with associated compliance and adjustment costs.

Türkiye-AB İlişkilerini Yeniden Biçimlendirmek: Gümrük Birliğine Alternatif Olarak Farklılaştırılmış Entegrasyon “İsviçre Modeli”?

“…Besides, decisions pertinent to CCP including CU-related acquis and the choosing of FTA partners are made entirely by the EU institutions with no inputs from Turkey (EC, 2016: 15;SOWG, 2015: 2). The asymmetry problems have become the cause of greater frustration for Ankara, especially from the mid-2000s thanks to Brussels' strategic move to engage in negotiating mega FTAs with bigger economies such as Canada and the United States (Altay, 2018a).…”

“…Thirdly, as a middle-income country, Turkey should avoid committing to a quick adaptation to higher EU standards in multiple domains of the acquis as currently proposed by the EC. A full embracement of the EU's acquis as offered in the two options of the EC especially in state aids, government procurement, and localization requirements, higher environmental and labor standards are expected to cause serious adjustment costs for the Turkish government and domestic industries as in the case of sanitary and phytosanitary standards for food products (Altay, 2018a(Altay, , 2018bWorld Bank, 2014: 66). In fact, in contrast to the Swiss model which has light rules coverage considering the Swiss development level, the EC proposes Turkey to adopt almost the same set of standards it offers to high-income trade partners such as Canada (EC, 2016: 37).…”