Turkey stands to be a big loser from the pending US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), according to a Brookings Institute study reviewed in Hürriyet Daily News. Under the terms of Turkey’s existing customs union agreement with the European Union, if the EU enters into a free trade pact with a third party, that party’s goods can also enter Turkey duty-free, but the third party is under no obligation to provide the same access to Turkish goods.
Moreover, the United States is also in negotiations with (currently) eleven Asian countries on an agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Free access to the American market for those countries’ products will put Turkish goods under even more competitive pressure.