Turkey's competitive advantage in exporting automotive suppliers products to EU: Large sized companies

The aim of this study is to examine, calculate and develop a proposal for Turkey's economic competitiveness against the European Union in terms of the export of automotive supply industry products. The method of collecting, comparing and determining the strengths and advantages, based on the data and documents related to the World, European Union and Turkey for the years 2016-2020 was used. Up-to-date statistics, data and documents published by National and International Public and Private Institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations were analyzed, compared and interpreted. International statistical data were obtained through Harmonized Customs Tariff and Statistics Position (GTİP) numbers used in world foreign trade. On the other hand, real opinions and suggestions were determined by establishing online communication with selected private companies. The revealed comparative advantages (RCA) values of GTIP 87, which includes the entire automotive industry of Turkey, the European Union and the member countries of the European Union, and also of GTIP 8708, which is widely used spare parts in all vehicles, were calculated for years 2016-2020. The calculated RCA values show that the companies in the automotive and automotive suppliers' industry in Turkey not only supply the products they demand to the main vehicle manufacturers in the country at the desired quality and time, but also provide products to the World and European Union markets with a strong competition. Automotive and automotive suppliers' industry companies have a competitive development potential in the World markets as well as in the European Union, considering their advantages such as size, geographical proximity and customs union agreement. Keywords: EU, Automotive, Export, Competitive, Supplier, Large sized companies