Istanbul, May 13 () - The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the revision of the Customs Union between Turkey and the Europian Union (EU) would have remarkable contributions to the process to Turkey-EU accession negotiations, Economic Development Foundation (İktisadi Kalkınma Vakfı - IKV) said in a stament, on Wednesday.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the revision of the Customs Union between Turkey and the EU was signed in Brussels on 12 May 2015.
"We, as IKV, consider the agreement on revision of the Customs Union that is among the main cornerstones of the relations between Turkey and the EU since its entry into force on 1 January 1996 as a positive development" İKV said. "We also wish to see that such a step taken at the 10th anniversary of Turkey-EU accession negotiations would have remarkable contributions to the process."
It was time for Customs Union between Turkey and the EU, which was approaching its 20th year, to be revised in line with the structure and requirements of the new global economic system, IKV added.
"The current status of Turkey and the EU is different from they used to be 20 years ago" IKV said in the statement, stating that the current global economic system was much more complicated from the economic system of the 1990s. "Therefore, revision of the Customs Union in line with the requirements of such changes in the global system is another cornerstone after the entry into force of the Customs Union in 1996."
Revision of the Customs Union between Turkey and the EU would have important contributions to Turkey, said IKV in the statement.
The revision would provide a window of opportunity for the parties to overcome the chronic problems of the current Customs Union such as visa issue and transport quotas as well as enabling Turkey to build a solid ground for the new generation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that are becoming more important in EU trade policy.
"From this perspective, the experiences to be gained from the revision negotiations will be the key for Turkey to take part in trade arena of the future, and thus, will help Turkey to take part in the ongoing TTIP negotiations between the EU and the US" IKV added.
