Türkiye's foreign trade analysis and evaluation of trade activity with the ECA region

Foreign trade plays an important role for the development and progress of countries. In this study, it is aimed to analyze Turkey's foreign trade and to evaluate the efficiency of its trade with European and Central Asian countries since foreign trade is a very important factor for the economy and development of a country. For this purpose, descriptive data analysis and trade complementarity index were used. A detailed descriptive analysis of Türkiye's foreign trade was conducted and the foreign trade trend for 1990-2023 was analyzed. Thus, the countries with the highest foreign trade and the products with the highest exports and imports are included. Türkiye's foreign trade with countries in the Europe and Central Asia region has been evaluated in terms of the progress in Türkiye's foreign trade. According to OECD data, trade facilitation indicators of 46 countries in ECA were evaluated together with Türkiye. The extent to which Türkiye's export structure overlaps with the import profile of European and Central Asian countries was calculated with the trade complementarity index, and the results were obtained on the extent to which Türkiye's foreign trade is complementary with which countries. According to the results of trade facilitation performances and trade complementarity index, Türkiye's foreign trade with 28 countries in the Europe and Central Asia region is highly complementary. Considering the results, it is concluded that Türkiye can realize its trade more effectively and thus, there may be positive reflections on Türkiye's foreign trade and economy. Keywords: Türkiye, foreign trade, ECA, trade complementarity index, trade facilitation indicator