TURKEY’S ACCESSION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL SECTORS

n October 2005, the European Council, having determined that Turkey fulfilled the Copenhagen political criteria, opened accession negotiations with Turkey. Following this decision, the arguments on Turkish membership has become a priority for Turkey since Turkey’s accession to the EU would have considerable impacts on Turkey and the EU. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the potential economic impacts of Turkish membership to the European Union. Since much of the support and tariff protection in EU markets is associated with agriculture and food production, the study focuses principally on these sectors. In this context, to derive estimates of Turkey’s accession a multiregional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model framework is employed. Using the standard Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model and version 6 database, the paper looks into the impacts of the accession, sectoral reallocations and the welfare effects.