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Turkey and the EU share a customs agreement that partly integrates Turkey into the internal market. The agreement came into force on 1 January 1996.
It establishes free movement of goods between Turkey and the EU – except for coal, steel and agricultural products, which are governed by separate preferential market-access agreements.
The Turkish business community has complained that the customs union suffers from practical defects (eg, delays in countries negotiating parallel trade deals with Turkey to those they have with the EU) and that this leads to trade being diverted away from Turkey. “The customs union is not sustainable without Turkey becoming very rapidly a full member of the EU,” says Bahadir Kaleagasi, the permanent representative to the EU of the Turkish Industrialists and Business Association .
Turkish exports to the EU were worth €43 billion in 2008, while its imports from the EU were worth €50.5bn, leaving a trade deficit of €7.5bn.
The EU is Turkey's largest trade partner, accounting for over 41% of the country's external trade in 2008, according to European Commission figures. This figure is, however, falling, as the Turkish government pursues increased trade links with other countries in its neighbourhood.
Turkey is the EU's seventh-largest trading partner. More than 10,700 EU companies have a presence in Turkey.
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