Abstract:

The Turkish government’s “open trade policy” to negotiate and conclude bilateral and multilateral economic partnership agreements (EPAs) or free trade agreements (FTAs) with various states across the world have become particularly salient since 2013. Since then, against the backdrop of a global protectionist wave, Turkey has significantly intensified its efforts to conclude “new generation FTAs.” The ongoing FTA negotiations with the Japanese government - active since 2014 - are one of the outcomes of those efforts. In this paper, the general characteristics of new generation FTAs and their significance in the context of the global protectionist currents will be tackled. Subsequently, advances in economic relations between Turkey and Japan will be examined in comparison with Turkey’s previous new generation FTAs with Korea and Singapore and assessed in the context of Turkey’s active and open trade policy of enhancing international EPAs and its priorities for leaving a considerable maneuver space for implementing its national economic policies.

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