Turkish Performance in Exporting Manufactures: A Comparative Structural Analysis

Abstract

This paper considers the prospects for Turkish manufactured exports, now dominated by simple labour-intensive products. The importance to Turkey of diversifying its export base has risen with its EU free trade agreement, where it has advantages in labour-intensive exports but where special preferences will vanish soon. As a high wage economy, Turkey has to compete with low-wage countries in simple, low technology products. As a technologically lagging economy, it has to compete against high technology European firms. Both are difficult, as there remain important structural deficiencies in Turkish competitiveness. Strategic implications are drawn in the conclusions.