In the course of the year 2014, IKV has launched the project aiming to establish a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Information and Capacity Building Center with the support of the Turkish business community and civil society organizations. With this project, by following closely and assessing the developments on the new generation of FTA, especially the ongoing negotiations between the EU and the USA for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), IKV wants to establish the capacity that will be able to better formulate opinions on the impacts of these agreements on the business community and on various sectors.

Between the years 2010 and 2014, IKV has organized numerous meeting and seminars and prepared publications on the Customs Union which constitutes the basis for the economic and trade relations between Turkey and the EU through the “EU’s Trade Policy and Turkey Project”.  Therefore the FTA Information and Capacity Building Center will benefit from the previous experience gained with this project but it will also take a step further by taking into account not only the recent developments in Turkey-EU relations but also in the world trade.

Within the framework of this project, a first meeting was held in April 2014, with the participation of the Head of Department of Service Trade Agreements of the Ministry of Economy Ayşe Figen Safalı and IKV Brussels Representative Haluk Nuray. During this meeting, detailed information on the current situation in Turkey in the light of developments on the world trade in services and Turkey’s position in the negotiation process were presented to the participants. For further information about this meeting, please click here.

During the second meeting organized in June 2014, TÜSİAD Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on the United States and Europe's Turkey Project at Brookings Prof. Dr. Kemal Kirişçi, Managing Director of European Services Forum (ESF) Pascal Kerneis and Director of the TEPAV Center for Multilateral Trade Center and Turkey’s former Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ambassador Bozkurt Aran discussed the latest developments regarding the new generation of FTAs and the impact of the ongoing TTIP negotiations. For further information about this second meeting, please click here.

If you require any further information about this project, you may contact us via sta@ikv.org.tr