The European Union (EU) and Turkiye recently discussed key cooperation areas like green transition and digital trade that have a bearing on the Customs Union, and ways to resolve additional priority trade barriers after the latter removed 11 trade barriers out of 26 in early 2021.

At the first EU-Turkiye High-Level Dialogue on Trade in Brussels, delegations led by EU executive vice president and commissioner for trade Valdis Dombrovskis and Turkish minister for trade Omer Bolat discussed business mobility and the road transport quotas applied by EU member states to Turkish hauliers.

They discussed further areas of cooperation, notably ways to prevent the circumvention of EU sanctions via the Customs Union.

The dialogue gave political steer to the work on addressing the remaining bilateral trade irritants and allowed for a discussion on several areas of cooperation that would strengthen the functioning of the Customs Union, an official EU release said.

EU-Turkiye bilateral trade was worth €206 billion in 2023.

The dialogue was preceded by the EU-Turkiye Business Roundtable where representatives of major Turkish and EU business associations discussed current state of play in implementing the Customs Union and perspectives for enhancing bilateral trade and economic relations.