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The UK and Turkey will sign a free trade agreement by video conference on Tuesday, December 29, the first since London reached the post-Brexit deal with the EU last Thursday. the Financial times. “The agreement that we intend to sign this week provides for duty-free trade agreements and will help support our trade relations” which “last year were from worth 18.6 billion pounds. The deal will secure thousands of jobs across the UK in the manufacturing, automotive and steel sectors, ”said Liz Truss, Secretary for International Trade.
The UK is Turkey’s second-largest export market, but Ankara’s customs union with the EU prevented a free trade deal until a deal was concluded between London and Brussels on Brexit. . A British official told the FT that there was a “feeling of immediate relief” over the deal, as both Turkish producers and their British counterparts were concerned about the prospect of a no-deal.
Turkey’s is not the only agreement the premier has Boris johnson It is finishing renegotiating these days: at least 40 commercial relations with non-EU countries until now depended on the link with Brussels. Most of these, as you remember Bbc, have already been practically closed: Japan, Canada, Norway and Switzerland some of the most important. There are around ten left, but the agreement with Ankara has ensured most of the most delicate trade for British companies.
The agreement with Turkey, then, has a value that goes beyond bureaucratic issues: if in the immediate future trade relations between the two countries will continue along the lines of those previously held under the EU hat, for the 2022 London and Ankara have committed, through a specific review clause, to consider further expanding the agreement to include services, including digital, and more liberal regulations on trade and agriculture.
Turkey, writes Ansa, “has long sought a similar update to its customs agreement with the EU, but the process has been blocked largely for political reasons due to differences between the president. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European leaders ”. A blockage that could be loosened in the face of a closer relationship with London.