Abstract
ABSTRACT INTERNATIONAL TRADE BARRIERS AND RECENT SITUATION OF TURKISH TEXTILE EXPORTS This study first discusses the benefits of international trade, and the effect of trade barriers on the wealth of the world relating to the international competitiveness of the firms in a country. Then the political aspects of these barriers are handled relating to the future trends of international trade issues» Nowadays, GATT seems the most authorised institution in removing trade barriers among countries. This institution has been inspected in a detailed manner to find out where the biggest conflicts occur. Also, the most recent news about GATT negotiations and their discussions are incorporated into the study to give the reader an idea about the problem resolving capacity of GATT mechanism»The second main body, although it is not strictly separated from the remaining parts of the study, focuses on Turkish Textile Exports Sector and its problems. First, the question is presented in a worldwide manner, namely MFA-replacing problem» Then, the foreign aspects of Turkish economy are handled in a medium period of time interval of the last ten years of developments. At last the Turkish Textile Export Industry is inspected in a detailed fashion to find out domestic and worldwide problems causing recent contraction in export earnings of Turkey» The following 'Conclusions and Suggestions for further research' chapter tries to deduce some conclusions from the recent developments presented in this study and tries to find out mid-term and long- term solutions to present and coming problems in the future» Today, Turkish textile export sector is facing many problems, some of them are caused by external events some of them are domestic» Nowadays, it seems that we have improved our position in theInternational markets due to the quota increses from both the US and the EC market. Also, there are new taxes imposed on cotton imports to Turkey, which aims to overcome the dumping problem Turkey is -facing today. It is obvious the remaining problems are mostly domestic. We should develop strict control over the inputs of production like raw material, energy and labor prices which are increased much above the FX rates since the last two years which causes pricing problems -for Turkish exporters. The technology, which Turkey is using today in production became quiet old and needs to be replaced. This is also necessary if we are targeting to produce higher value added products. Turkey, today is aiming to have an export income of *10bn in the year 2000, which require almost $6bn capital investment in the industry. After proper inspection it has been found that the industry is too young to left alone to evolve and there are still many possibilities to develop the industry to become one of the major engines of theeconomy in the medium and long-term» These solutions are introduced in a brief manner, where the details require more enumerated investigation and is beyond the scope of this study. It is strongly hoped that, understanding the findings of this study might help the bureaucrats and the top managers in the industry to develop consistent long term strategies, both to gain an advantageous position in international markets and to solve the domestic problems and settle the sector to an stable situation.
