Liberalizationin international trade and Turkey

After the Second World War, Liberalization movement of international trade has progressed in two ways. One of them is the effort for the worldwide elimination of all the barriers before the international trade. This is expressed as global approach. In the beginning, the efforts for liberalization of international trade were made by GATT. Today, WTO has been implementing this task. Especially, at the end of Uruguay Round, important decisions were made on the elimination of barriers before the trade. For that reason, Uruguay Round made important contribution to the liberalization of international trade. The second approach is regional one that aims liberalization of trade within the regional economic integrations such as NAFTA, APEC and the EU. After 1980, Turkey has liberalized her foreign trade in parallel with the change of its industrialization policy. In one hand, within the framework of global liberalization, she has signed the Final Act of Uruguay Round and undertaken some responsibilities. On the other hand, within the context of regional liberalization, she signed a custom union agreement with the EU. These efforts are very vital steps in the way of trade liberalization but couldn't reach to adequate levels. The aim of this study is to examine Turkey's foreign trade policy within the context of international trade liberalization. This study consists of three chapters. In Chapter One, liberal foreign trade and protectionism have been examined theorically. In the Second Chapter global and regional efforts for the liberalization of international trade have been examined in details. In the Third Chapter trade policy of Turkey has been studied and applications towards the liberalization were evaluated.