• Agriculture
• Common Agricultural Policy
  • Common Agricultural Policy
  • CAP & dumping
• Impact of liberalisation

Agriculture

This paper analyses the role that European countries’ institutional relations and economic policies have in improving the agricultural economic performance in Turkey. In particular, the paper examines the expected impacts on Turkish competitiveness, sustainable development and structural adjustments of farms and agro-food economy. The paper points that European and Turkish policy objectives are in line, underscoring that they are setting the conditions to define public policy initiatives that can contribute to the achievement of their mutual objectives.

In 2004, the European Union (EU) decided to start negotiations for accession of Turkey to the EU. However, the share of the EU population that opposes Turkish EU membership has risen steadily over the last decade. The paper finds it evident that the expected costs to the EU budget that is transferred to Turkey to finance agricultural support payments are high. Yet, it underlines that other advantages of economic nature are identified. The paper considers these advantages as the starting point of the analysis regarding the economic potential areas of specific regional areas of Italy and Turkey.

The paper states that some European countries are aware of the opportunity of making Turkey a privileged commercial partner in the agricultural sector. In this sense, it deals with the commercial relations between Turkey and Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. The region enjoys one of the most competitive agro-food industries in the word. The paper claims that the agro-food sector trade between Turkey and Emilia-Romagna seems to continue to keep the increasing trends, and is likely to reach higher values in the forthcoming years.

Similarly, the paper emphasises the importance of some Turkish regions in terms of cooperation with the EU. It indicates that Izmir is one of the most important trade centers of Turkey, with its over 4000 exporters. Italy has always been an important trade partner for Izmir, and there is an upward trend in Izmir export values with Italy, particularly in agro-food.

The paper main conclusions and recommendations are:

• European countries should enhance the role of Turkey as an important trade partner country
• there are spaces to exploit the economic and business opportunities of Turkey agro-food sector
• the opportunities need to be supported by policies set by governments and bodies, such as development agencies and chambers of commerce
• trade policies could reinforce its basis thanks to stable institutional relations with adequate coordination among the same layer of government or same body
• the impact of relations among Emilia-Romagna and Turkish regions is still early to be fully assessed, but represents a first step towards a common forwarding agricultural policy

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