Turkey–EU Agricultural Relations and Its Future

Abstract

The beginning of Turkey-EU agricultural relations is based on the Ankara Agreement establishing Turkey-EU relations. In the Ankara Agreement, it was decided that the (European) Community would provide economic assistance to Turkey for a period of time for the development of the Turkish economy, a customs union would be established between the parties in order to achieve the objectives of the Partnership Agreement, and a three-step integration process was foreseen in this regard. In the Ankara Agreement, a preferential transition has been provided to Turkey in traditional export products that have a significant place in Turkey's agriculture during the preparation period, which covers the 1963-1973 years. The nature of commercial and economic relations in the transitional period is determined by the Additional Protocol. With the added protocol, the agricultural sector was excluded from the Customs Union and it was decided to continue to implement preferential regime and to take measures towards Common Agricultural Policy until the end of transition period. Association Council Resolutions numbered 1/80, 1/95 and 1/98 includes important agricultural issues. Turkey's candidacy for membership was accepted with the Decisions of the Helsinki Summit on 10-11 December 1999 and negotiations started on 3 October 2005. Three of the 35 chapters determined by the negotiation framework document are related to agriculture (11, 12 and 13th chapters). With the start of negotiations, a two stage screening process has been conducted. On 9 November 2006, the EU decided that the 8 chapters would not open to negotiations and no chapter would be provisionally closed until Turkey confirmed that it had fulfilled its commitments to the Additional Protocol (opening its ports of sea and air from Turkey to the Greek Cypriot administration). Among these chapters are Agriculture and Rural Development (Chapter 11) and Fishing (Chapter 13). Agricultural trade relations continue under the concessional regime. The EU is making frequent changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, and the target to adapt is constantly changing. With Brexit, the future of the EU has begun to be debated. Talks on the TTIP agreement, expected to closely affect Turkey's trade, have been interrupted. It is also discussed that agricultural and services trade to be included in the Customs Union. In this context, this paper aims to discuss Turkey-EU agricultural relations and the possible future of these relations.

Keywords: Turkey, EU, agricultural relations, agricultural integration.

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/5-4-25