The liberalization of the Turkish economy is a key factor affecting Turkey's application to join the European Union. This book examines the impact of economic liberalization in Turkey and Turkey's approach to the elimination of barriers to trade. It focuses on the liberalization of trade in Turkey's agricultural and industrial commodities sector and key services such as telecommunications, electricity, natural gas, banking and transport. The chapters include thorough discussions on WTO and EU approaches for the elimination of barriers to trade, international and EU rules and regulations in the various service sectors, and the methods for estimating the tariff equivalents of barriers to trade in the different service sectors as well as methods for estimating the benefits of liberalization of services for Turkey. The experience of Turkey, its approach to liberalization and its measures to eliminate barriers to trade serve as a useful model for other neighboring countries of the European Union.

The liberalization of the Turkish economy is a key factor affecting Turkey's application to join the European Union. This book examines the impact of economic liberalization in Turkey and Turkey's approach to the elimination of barriers to trade. It focuses on the liberalization of trade in Turkey's agricultural and industrial commodities sector and key services such as telecommunications, electricity, natural gas, banking and transport. The chapters include thorough discussions on WTO and EU approaches for the elimination of barriers to trade, international and EU rules and regulations in the various service sectors, and the methods for estimating the tariff equivalents of barriers to trade in the different service sectors as well as methods for estimating the benefits of liberalization of services for Turkey. The experience of Turkey, its approach to liberalization and its measures to eliminate barriers to trade serve as a useful model for other neighboring countries of the European Union.

Transport costs have been, and still are, an important component of trade costs, which are one the major determinants of the volume of trade, and thus of gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP growth. Studies show that two of the main determinants of transport costs are regulatory frameworks in transport sectors and transport infrastructure. The productivity and competitiveness of goods and services firms depends largely on access to low-cost and high-quality transport services, and those services have a powerful influence on economic growth. Countries commit themselves to increasing the efficiency of transport services, which can largely be achieved through increased competition and hence through liberalization of transport sectors. Since barriers to trade in transport services are typically regulatory in nature, this book provides a thorough discussion of international, regional, and country specific rules and regulations in those sectors. Concentrating on the EU, and Turkey in particular, it considers rules and regulations in transport sectors. It shows that economic liberalization pursued unilaterally, multilaterally, or regionally has beneficial effects for Turkey, and that the benefits from such liberalization are substantial. Furthermore, the volume shows that transport infrastructure is an important determinant of exports, and hence GDP and GDP growth.