A Free Trade Agreement has been signed between Turkey and the United Kingdom. It is reported that the trade agreement includes all industrial and agricultural products. At the signing ceremony, Turkey’s Trade Minister PEKCAN said, "It will be the biggest guarantee of the development of our trade between Turkey and the United Kingdom". In reply to this statement, UK Trade Minister TRUST said “I believe we will gain great momentum."
BREXIT process which began after the referendum held in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2016, will be completed by 1 January 2021. In this context, Turkey's customs union relationship with the United Kingdom will end on January 1, 2021.
The UK has signed its first free trade agreement with Turkey following its post-Brexit agreement with the European Union (EU) on which occasion Turkey has managed to maintain the gains that the customs union has brought for 25 years.
The ceremony for the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Turkey and the United Kingdom was held with the participation of Trade Minister Ms. PEKCAN and United Kingdom International Trade Minister Liz Truss via video conference.
Contacts and negotiations have been held between Turkey and the United Kingdom since 2017, ensuring that trade relations can be maintained on the basis of an FTA. With the deal, uncertainty about the trade structure between the two countries to be experienced post-Brexit, has disappeared.
The agreement was the first step towards further deepening Turkey's relations with the United Kingdom, while maintaining the gains made by the customs union for 25 years. Customs duties on industrial products were reset with the FTA, while existing concessions on agriculture and processed agricultural products with the EU were scaled back and reflected in new trade relations.
