ULUSLARARASI EKONOMİK SORUNLAR

N. Tolga TUNCER
Turkey not only removed tariff barriers against the EU members but also committed
itself to apply the common tariff rates of the Union. (common external tariff)
Considering that EU has comparably very low tariff rates in industrial products, it
becomes clear that Turkey does not have much to give in NAMA negotiations. Whatever
will be the result of NAMA for EU, Turkey will have to apply, too. For this reason,
Turkey in NAMA takes side with the EU and is treated as a developed country. As a
result, Turkey demands an ambitious market opening from the developing countries
and the coefficients of the swiss formula are convincingly low for them. This position
totally applies to EU itself. EU, together with other developed countries, struggles with
the NAMA 11 Group of developing countries which demand a very low coefficient for
developed members. (a coefficient around 5)
4.2.1. An Overall Assessment of NAMA Negotiations and Turkey’s Position
There is no conflict of interest between Turkey and EU in NAMA Negotiations.
Both are treated as developed countries and hence demand an ambitious level of market
opening from developing members while trying not to go too far in opening their
markets.
On the other hand, looking at the overall picture, currently, NAMA Negotiations
seems to be the one where we are the farthest from a deal. The NAMA 11 Group headed
by India appears to have a very tough stance demanding a generous market access from
developed countries while offering developed countries tariff reduction coefficient
which are not acceptable by them at all. So, at the moment, if a horizontal process is
launced and a ministerial meeting is hold at the end, even though there are still
significant differences remain in agriculture, the most difficult question seems to be
NAMA.
4.3. Trade Facilitation Negotiations
Trade Facilitation has been a topic that was tried to be inserted into the multilateral
negotiating agenda by the developed countries for a long time. The work in Goods
Council of WTO on trade facilitation goes back to Singapore Ministerial Conference in
1996 but the topic was officially included in Doha Agenda with the General Council
Decision of 2004 –the July Package-.
In a nutshell, the trade facilitation negotiations has three pillars. The negotiations
aim at clarifiying and improving the three GATT Articles: Article V on freedom of
transit, Article VIII on fees and formalities related to trade and Article X on publication
and administration of trade legislation. Negotiations on Article VIII and Article X of
Uluslararası Ekonomik Sorunlar 29