New free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Turkey

In the shadow of the UK-EU exit agreement, London has already begun to pull the strings of Britain's new trade policy once the exit is complete. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday a free trade agreement between the two countries.

The Turkish President said it was the most important trade agreement since Turkey's entry into the European Union's Customs Union in 1996. "We are entering a new phase which will be of great benefit to both sides," Erdogan said after a meeting of the Turkish Cabinet.

However, this agreement will only be in force after the United Kingdom's complete withdrawal, since both countries are still members of the Customs Union and must keep their bilateral trade relationship within the framework of the Union.

The United Kingdom is Turkey's second largest export market and even ranks first in the household appliances sector. In 2019, the volume of trade between the two countries will exceed $16 billion, with the balance being in favour of Turkish exports. 

The Business Council for Turkey-UK relations expects to increase this figure by almost 30% as a result of this free trade agreement, bringing the volume up to $20 billion by 2023.

The United Kingdom's Trade Minister, the Conservative Liz Truss, said that "this new agreement will support the trade relationship between the two countries for the foreseeable future". Liz Truss also comments that the idea is to update the agreements to the most advantageous terms possible following the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union.

Both Turkey and the UK are currently in a tense relationship with the European Union. The former because Turkish expansionism in the eastern Mediterranean is generating significant friction with some of the EU countries, such as Cyprus, Greece and France. This has forced Brussels to react with sanctions against the Erdogan regime. And the United Kingdom, for its part, because Boris Johnson has stretched the rope with the European Union to the limit, risking the possibility of finally reaching an agreement on Brexit.

At this point in relations between London, Ankara and Brussels, the first two have seen a door open to improving their trade relations and attempting to build a bridge over the EU on a commercial level to mitigate the impact of the departure of one and the poor relationship of the other.

From Turkey's point of view, this agreement also makes it difficult for the United Kingdom to support the sanctions proposed by Brussels or Washington. Ankara considers that, after signing this new free trade agreement, no sanctions will be forthcoming from London and that the Turkish economy, which is already in a delicate situation, will be able to get some air in such an important market for its products as the British one.