A new free trade agreement (FTA) between EFTA and Turkey entered into force on 1 October 2021 after the EFTA States and Turkey ratified it . A modernised FTA was signed in Iceland on 25 June 2018 after six rounds of negotiations, which started in September 2014. The new FTA replaces the agreement from 1992 on the same day.
The agreement covers trade in goods (industrial products, fish and marine products and processed agricultural products), trade in services, the protection of intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition, trade and sustainable development, institutional provisions and dispute settlement. In addition, updated bilateral agricultural agreements between the individual EFTA States and Turkey continue to form part of the instruments creating the free trade area.
The FTA with Turkey is EFTA’s sixth most important preferential trade agreement.
Since 2001 exports from the EFTA States to Turkey have increased by 20.9%. In the same period imports increased by 18.4%.
The main exports from the EFTA States to Turkey in 2020 were mineral fuels, pharmaceutical products and machinery, whilst apparel and vehicles were the main imports.
In the same year Norway’s main exports to Turkey were mineral fuels and machinery. Switzerland exported mostly pharmaceutical products and machinery, whilst Iceland exported fish at a value of more than EUR 450 million.
Throughout the pandemic, trade between the countries continued the trend of steady growth. In 2020 total trade was valued at EUR 5 billion, which represented an increase of 11.6% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
More information on EFTA-Turkey trade here.
