The importance of maritime transportation in Turkey?s foreign trade and its problems

The disappearance of borders in today's world, it has become an inevitable necessity that the countries are in economic relations with each other. The transportation and freight which are the main support of economic relations are in an increasing importance day by day. Today transportation is divided into systems such as land, airway, railway, sea and pipeline. Moreover, the integrated transportation which is formed by the combination of two or more of these transportation systems is a frequently mentioned and very efficient system in the transport market.For the products the unit costs must be as low as possible for entering the markets which are in hard competitive conditions. One of the main costs that affects the product unit cost is the transportation cost. It is only possible to supply the raw materials with low costs from high quality but physically distant markets by the sea transportation. This is why % 90 of world trade is carried out through sea and this ratio is expected to increase.In today?s world marine and maritime are trade and service branches leading by freight and passenger transportation with the ship building industry, port services and marine tourism. The area of maritime transportation has international features. So it is in great importance for international trade. For countries the way to increase their international trade is maritime transportation.Turkey, which is a peninsula country, could not use the existing potential in the marine sector and can not receive the adequate share from the most economical transport sub-system. When all developed countries are trying to gain values even from the smallest economical resources, Turkey is not attaching enough importance to sea which is an infinite economic source.