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The head of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICOC), Sekib Avdagic, urged the European Union to grant Turkish citizens visa-free travel without delay and speed up talks to update the Customs Union, warning that rising trade risks could overshadow the long-standing partnership between the two sides.
Avdagic said the recent move by Türkiye and EU officials to reopen a negotiation channel is a welcome step, but added that concrete progress is needed on long-pending issues. "After these latest signings, there is no time left to lose," he said, referring to new free trade deals with Mercosur and India that create risks and negative effects for Türkiye under the current framework.
Avdagic asserted that spreading a solution to free trade agreement-related problems over a long period is not acceptable and that the matter should be urgently taken to the Partnership Council, the joint body overseeing the Türkiye–EU relationship. "Eliminating the FTA-driven pressure that puts Turkish industry under unfair competition is an unavoidable necessity," he said.
Established in 1995, the Customs Union between Türkiye and the European Union is a trade framework that removes tariffs and quotas on industrial goods and processed agricultural products traded between the two sides. It also requires Türkiye to apply the EU’s common external tariff for those goods, but it does not cover services, primary agriculture, public procurement or newer areas such as e-commerce.
As talks on revising the deal gain traction, business groups are calling for quicker progress and say the main demand is to widen the agreement’s scope beyond industrial and processed agricultural goods to also include services, agriculture, public procurement and e-commerce.
The talks gained pace after European Union Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos visited Ankara in early February for meetings with senior Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek.
Speaking to Turkish media, Kos described Türkiye as "a very important partner" and said putting the discussed agenda into practice would "bring a major breakthrough in Türkiye–EU relations," while stressing the need for confidence-building steps between the two sides.
She noted that the Customs Union has remained unchanged for around 30 years and said there is room to deepen the trade relationship by improving how the current system operates.
In a joint statement issued after her meeting with Fidan, both sides said they agreed to move forward with modernizing the Customs Union and strengthening its implementation to support competitiveness and economic resilience for both Türkiye and the EU.
Türkiye strengthened its position as the EU’s fifth-largest trading partner in 2025, with total bilateral trade reaching $232.7 billion and exports to the bloc rising to about $117 billion.
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