Expanded UK-Turkey trade deal seen as win-win, could include services
The current deal does not account for services, which form integral parts of the British and Turkish economies.
LONDON — Since it left the European Union in January 2020, the United Kingdom has been trying to make the most of its divorce from its largest trading partner by forging deeper relationships with middle powers such as India, Singapore and Turkey.
On July 18, Turkey and Britain announced that they had started discussing a new free trade deal. Officials from both countries met in Ankara that day to review the current free trade agreement and move toward renegotiating it.
Asked about his hopes for a new trade deal, UK Investment Minister Dominic Johnson told Al-Monitor last week, “The UK’s current agreement, signed in December 2020, mostly covers goods, and a review of the agreement found that we could add considerable value to our economies by expanding the agreement to new areas such as services and digital.”
Soner Cagaptay, Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish research program at The Washington Institute, said that an updated trade deal is in the interest of both countries.
