THE MUCH ANTICIPATED POST-BREXIT DEAL HAS BEEN AGREED: HOW WILL IT AFFECT TURKEY?
The UK will leave EU membership on 31 December 2020. The negotiations on the new relationship between the UK and the EU have been very difficult and after months, a compromise was finally reached. In this way, the threat of a no-deal Brexit was prevented. On 25 December 2020, IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu issued a statement assessing the EU-UK agreement on post-Brexit relations. IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu welcomed the agreement and stated that the compromise reached on the outstanding issues was also a positive development for Turkey. He made the following remarks:
“Brexit, which has been going on for more than four years, and the process of concluding a new agreement between the UK and the EU is finally about to be completed. In the negotiations that have been going on for months, no agreement was reached on three issues: Fishing rights, level playing field provisions, implementation of the agreement and dispute resolution. Negotiations on fishing continued until the very last moment. The EU demanded that EU fishermen continue fishing in UK territorial waters while the UK wanted to limit this right. It is a welcome development that an agreement involving trade in goods and services has finally been reached. With the mutual maintenance of zero tariffs and zero quotas, annual trade worth approximately 1 trillion dollars is guaranteed. However, there may be some commercial difficulties, delays and backlogs arising from border controls, regulatory differences, and bureaucratic procedures. As a result, the EU and UK will now operate as separate markets. The UK will now negotiate and conclude its own trade agreements. It will be able to implement different norms and standards.”
IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu also stressed the importance of the post-Brexit deal for Turkey, and said:
"In case of a no-deal Brexit, Turkey would be among the most affected parties after the EU. In this respect, the agreement comes as a huge relief especially to Turkish exporters. Leaving the EU, the UK will also leave the Ankara Agreement on the basis of which the Customs Union had been founded. For this reason, there is a need for a new agreement to regulate the relations between the two parties. Turkey’s Ministry of Trade has made significant progress in the negotiations of this new agreement with the UK and the negotiations are about to be completed. Now that an agreement has been reached between the UK and the EU, it will be possible for this agreement to swiftly come into effect. In this way, commercial losses will be prevented. For the continuation of exports, we hope that this new agreement will be approved quickly and become effective as soon as possible.”