EU backs US position on Turkey’s inclusion to TTIP

A statement issued by Turkey’s EU Minister Volkan Bozkır last week that said Turkey might freeze its Customs Union deal with the European Union if the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) does not include Turkey was quite important, showing the government’s determination toward this end.

Bozkır’s urging is a continuation of several other Turkish leaders’ strongly worded criticisms against the EU over the implementation of the Customs Union. The debate between Ankara and Brussels resulted in a report issued by the World Bank in April, recommending the expansion of the deal to agriculture, services, etc. The parties have yet to explore ways to respond to the suggestions made in this report.

As Turkey left local, and most importantly presidential, elections behind with the formation of a new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, these issues, having been shelved for a time, were brought back to the agenda. But it seems Bozkır’s threatening that Turkey could freeze the Customs Union deal received little reaction in Brussels.

“Turkey sees it as political, but it should be aware that it needs to adopt certain economic reforms before asking to join the TTIP. It should also be recalled that this point was also made by the U.S. Secretary of Trade,” a senior European diplomat said recently.

In a visit to Ankara in early October, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker made clear that “it was not the right time to begin talks about including Turkey in the TTIP process with Europe.”

“Let me be clear about the TTIP. Turkey and the U.S. are great allies and nothing is going to change that. And we have a mechanism called the High Level Committee which we use to...