ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a summary of the AP provisions regulating the movement of goods between the European Union (EU) and Turkey during the transition to a customs union. It examines the way in which the EU’s weak anchoring capacity has interacted with Turkey’s non-credible commitment to policy reform to generate the anchor/credibility dilemma in EU-Turkey relations. The AP provides that the EU would abolish unilaterally all tariffs, charges, and quantitative restrictions on Turkish exports of manufactured products from 1973 onwards. The divisibility of trade policy issues is high because policy decisions in this area affect different societal groups differently, depending on their positions as exporters, importers, consumers, or producers. The EU delegation in the AC proposed the establishment of a working party that would investigate the impact of the AP on Turkey’s deteriorating trade deficit with the EU and what measures could be taken to address it.
