Modes of Regional Cooperation and their Political Economy

FEUTURE Online Paper No. 29 (2019)

With the accession talks at a virtual halt, economic cooperation presents itself as one of the few open areas of dialogue between the EU and Turkey. On the one hand, Turkey is trying to reposition itself as a regional and global player weighing its options outside of the EU in terms of economic cooperation. On the other hand, both parties agree to the need to upgrade the current limited Customs Union (CU) agreement. Outside of but highly relevant for the political tensions between the two long term partners, the world trading regime is on the verge of major changes through mega trade agreements such as the TPP and the TTIP. Although currently rising trade wars seem to shadow the multilateral trade regime, big deals are to come whether bilateral or otherwise. More than the EU, Turkey will need to shape its policy to prevent potential losses. This paper evaluates different modes of economic cooperation between the EU and Turkey as well as Turkey's potential involvement in partnerships outside of the EU.