Turkey, as a party to the GATT, conducts Free Trade Agreements in line with Article XXIV of GATT 1947. According to this Article, Turkey may grant favorable treatment to its trading partners within a customs union or a free trade area without extending such treatment to all WTO members, subject to certain conditions.

Without prejudice to WTO provisions, the Turkey-EU Customs Union constitutes the major legal basis of Turkey’s free trade agreements (FTA). Under the Customs Union, Turkey aligns its commercial policy with the EU’s Common Commercial Policy. This alignment concerns both autonomous regimes and preferential agreements with third countries. Turkey negotiates and concludes free trade agreements with third countries in parallel with the EU. Together with the EU Common Customs Tariff, the preferential trade regimes constitute the most important part of the trade policy applied towards third countries.

Turkey has concluded FTAs with 38 countries; however, 11 were repealed upon their accession to the EU. The remaining 22 FTAs in force are with EFTA, Israel, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia, Chile, Mauritius, South Korea, Malaysia, Moldova, Faroe Islands, Singapore, United Kingdom, Venezuela, and Kosovo. Additional FTAs signed with Lebanon, Sudan, and Qatar, will come into force once ratified by the relevant parliaments. Turkey has been conducting negotiations concerning their existing FTAs with an aim to update and deepen their scope. Turkey has concluded negotiations with EFTA, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro and negotiations with Georgia and Malaysia should be finalized soon. Turkey has been actively engaged in FTA negotiations with Indonesia, Japan, Somalia, Thailand, and Ukraine. Turkey continues its efforts to speed up its ongoing FTA negotiations with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Cameroon, Chad, Seychelles, Gulf Cooperation Council, and MERCOSUR. Turkey has also launched initiatives to begin negotiations with nine countries/country blocs including the U.S., Canada, India, Vietnam, Algeria, Libya, and South Africa. Turkey also is also engaged in preferential trade agreement negotiations with Azerbaijan, Iran, and Uzbekistan.

The Turkey-EU Customs Union eliminated custom duties and quantitative restrictions. As a result of the Customs Union, Turkey opened its internal market to EU and third-country competition, while securing free access to the EU market. In addition, Turkey has sought to align itself to the preferential regimes that the EU applies to third countries and to harmonize its legislation with the EU’s acquis communautaire in a broad spectrum of areas, including standards and technical legislation, and competition policy.

While negotiations to update the Customs Union were launched several years ago, talks have stalled.

A Tax Treaty Agreement between the United States and Turkey for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income, together with a related Protocol, was signed in 1996 and became effective on January 1, 1998. See the full tax treaty.