EU trade relations with Türkiye. Facts, figures and latest developments.
EU-Türkiye trade relations are based on an Association Agreement from 1963 and a Customs Union agreement, which entered into force on 31 December 1995.
Türkiye has been a candidate country to join the European Union since 1999. Accession negotiations started in 2005, but have not advanced recently. Türkiye is a member of the Union for the Mediterranean.
*Services data is only available with a delay of one year.
In 1963, the European Economic Community (the EU’s predecessor) and Türkiye signed an Association Agreement (the ‘Ankara Agreement’), in which both parties agreed to progressively establish a Customs Union over a period of several years. An Additional Protocol was signed in November 1970, setting out a timetable for the abolition of tariffs and quotas on industrial goods circulating between the parties. The final phase of the Customs Union was completed on 1 January 1996 with the implementation of the Association Council Decision No 1/95 (the Customs Union Decision), which is currently in force.
The Customs Union Decision both confirmed the liberalised trade regime (the removal of tariffs and quantitative restrictions) for all industrial goods between the EU and Turkey, and established a requirement for Turkey's alignment with the EU's customs tariffs and rules, commercial policy, competition policy, intellectual property rights, and technical legislation related to the scope of the Customs Union.
In addition, the EU and Türkiye have concluded two further bilateral preferential trade agreements. The first agreement, the agreement between the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and Türkiye on trade in products covered by the Treaty establishing the ECSC, established a Free Trade Agreement for coal, iron and steel products in 1996, along with relevant competition rules. Further to the expiry of the ECSC Treaty, the EU took over this agreement. The second agreement, Association Council Decision No 1/98 (amended by Decision No 2/2006), provides for preferential concessions on trade in certain agricultural and fishery products.
In December 2016, the Commission proposed to modernise the Customs Union and to extend bilateral trade relations to areas such as services, public procurement and sustainable development. The Commission proposal was based on comprehensive preparatory work throughout 2016, which included a public consultation with stakeholders and an impact assessment. However, the Council has not yet adopted the negotiating directives.
The inaugural meeting of a new EU-Türkiye High-Level Dialogue on Trade took place on 8 July 2024 in Brussels. It gave political steer to work on addressing remaining bilateral irritants to trade and allowed for a discussion on several areas of cooperation that would strengthen the functioning of the Customs Union, including the prevention of the circumvention of EU sanctions.
The EU's engagement with Türkiye on trade, including the establishment of the new High-Level Dialogue on Trade, is guided by a joint communication.
Türkiye is one of 42 current members of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which was launched in 2008 as a continuation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership established at the Barcelona Conference in 1995.
This inter-governmental partnership promotes cooperation and dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean region and brings together all 27 EU Member States and 15 countries of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine*, Syria – suspended, Tunisia and Türkiye; Libya is an observer).
The UfM’s strategic objectives are regional stability, human development and regional economic integration. Its overall aim is to transform the Euro-Mediterranean region into an area of peace, stability and prosperity.
In addition to the Customs Union and other agreements with the EU, Türkiye has 22 Free Trade Agreements in force with: EFTA countries, Israel, North Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine*, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Syria (suspended), Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia, Chile, Mauritius, South Korea, Malaysia, Moldova, Faroe Islands, Singapore, Kosovo, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.
The EU and Türkiye meet regularly to discuss issues and best practices and oversee the proper functioning of the Agreement.
* This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.
