International Transportation Association (UND) Board of Directors’ President Çetin Nuhoğlu visited IKV Chairman Ömer Cihad Vardan on the 29th April 2014. President Nuhoğlu was accompanied with a delegation consisting of Executive Board President Fatih Şener, Executive Board Vice Presidents Evren Bingöl and Alper Özel, EU Advisor Can Baydarol and Junior Expert Deniz Servantie. IKV Secretary-General Assoc. Prof Çiğdem Nas and Deputy Secretary-General Melih Özsöz were also present at the meeting. The main topics discussed during this meeting were the problems encountered in relation to the free movement of goods within the framework of the Customs Union, the visa obligation for Turkish citizens and the latest development in Turkey-EU relations.

In the meeting, UND Board of Directors’ President Çetin Nuhoğlu drew the attention to the problems encountered in relation to the free movement of goods within the framework of Customs Union which was also highlighted in the “Evaluation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union Report” published by World Bank in April 2014. As mentioned in the Report, President Nuhoğlu confirmed that both parties have successfully achieved an increase in their trade volume and value but this increase was limited due to restrictive measures such as transport quotas and the visa obligations for truck drivers and for Turkish citizens in general. In this context, President Nuhoğlu emphasized the need to ensure the free movement of goods in order to reap the full potential of trade volume. President Çetin Nuhoğlu, stressed that these problems constituted one of the main obstacles to the development of Turkey’s international road transportation sector under the conditions of global competitiveness. He thus explained that the works and activities conducted by UND aimed to overcome these issues and he further expressed their wish to work in close cooperation with IKV especially in the area of the visa obligation for Turkish businessmen.

IKV Chairman Ömer Cihad Vardan noted that visa issue constituted a major problem not only in the context of the Custom Union but also in Turkey’s EU negotiation process. Vardan stated that IKV has been working for many years on the visa issue by emphasizing the rights derived from Turkey's Association Law and by arguing that in reality the visa constitutes a non-tariff barrier within the context of Customs Union. Vardan ensured that IKV is planning to continue its efforts on Turkey’s EU accession process and to give a greater attention to the problems of visa obligation and free trade agreements.

At the end of the meeting, IKV and UND representatives agreed to work together for an action plan with the aim of solving these problems related to visa and transport quotas.