MÜSİAD President Abdurrahman Kaan shared his assessments regarding the Free Trade Agreement signed between Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

The statement by President Kaan is as follows:

As you know, in the Turkish economy, which grew by 6.7 percent in the third quarter of the year, the “contribution” of consumption expenditure to growth was 5.5 points, while the contribution of investments was 5.2 points. In this period, however, net external demand unfortunately pulled growth down by 9.1 points. At this point, as MÜSİAD, we pointed out that net external demand must also turn positive if the positive growth trend of the Turkish economy is to acquire a lasting character, and we stated that determining a new export-oriented strategy in the new period would be the right step. 

In this context, we attach great importance to the Free Trade Agreement signed between Türkiye and the United Kingdom. Indeed, the United Kingdom, which was the country we exported to the most with USD 10.9 billion throughout 2019 and USD 9.0 billion in the January-October period of 2020, ranks first among the countries with which we run a foreign trade surplus. 

With this agreement, which we believe will ensure that our market share in the region is preserved and even raised above its current level, we have safeguarded the gains brought by the Customs Union. We believe that this FTA, which we regard as the first of the steps taken to deepen Türkiye's relations with the United Kingdom still further and to preserve our country's competitiveness in that market, will be highly effective in turning the direction of net external demand positive in the growth figures for 2021. 

As MÜSİAD, we extend our thanks for this agreement, which has long been on our agenda as well, to all the statesmen who contributed to the signing, first and foremost the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye Ms. Ruhsar Pekcan.