Tunisia and Turkey formalize revision of free trade agreement
Tunisia and Turkey formalize revision of free trade agreement
African Manager | 5th December 2023
By African Manager
As part of efforts to strengthen economic relations between Tunisia and Turkey, Tunisian Minister of Trade and Export Development, Kalthoum Ben Rejeb, and her Turkish counterpart, Omar Bulat, officially signed the revised free trade agreement between the two countries on December 3, in Istanbul.
The agreement is the culmination of a negotiation process that began in October 2012. It has three main elements.
The agreement provides for a reassessment of the tariffs applied to a specific list of industrial products intended for consumption that have locally manufactured equivalents.
For a period of five years, these products will be subject to tariffs of between 27% and 37.5%, compared to 0% at present.
This measure, which represents 75% of the tariffs generally applied, is intended to increase the competitiveness of local industry.
The revision of the FTA will also include the application by Turkey of measures to promote Tunisian exports to that country.
These measures will take the form of annual quotas for Tunisian agricultural products, which will be completely exempted from customs duties, an initiative designed to stimulate the Tunisian agricultural sector.
The agreement also includes concrete support for Turkish investment in Tunisia. To this end, a Tunisian-Turkish investment forum, to be held in Istanbul in the first half of 2024, will provide a key platform for presenting projects and investment opportunities in Tunisia to Turkish investors.
This event will be an exceptional opportunity to attract more Turkish investors to Tunisia in various sectors.
It is important to stress that the main objective of revising the free trade agreement between the two countries is to protect Tunisian domestic industry and reduce the trade deficit with Turkey, which stood at 2.8 billion dinars at the end of October last year.
