Azerbaijan Turkey Free Trade Agreement
RTAs have increased not only by numbers, but also by coverage and complexity. In addition to trade in goods, recent ATRs include provisions on services and intellectual property rights, small and medium-sized enterprises, competition and technological cooperation, among others. On the other hand, modern RTAs have become megaregional SARs that cover a significant part of world trade. For example, the Asia-Pacific agreement was concluded for a comprehensive and progressive agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which is being ratified and covers about 15% of global GDP. United Stated has signed agreements with 20 countries. The European Union (« EU ») has more than 70 tariff and free trade agreements with countries in Europe, Asia, North America and South America and Africa. The EU is currently negotiating free trade agreements with, among others, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. List of agreements between two states, two blocs or one bloc and one state. Georgia and Ukraine have notified 12 and 18 free trade agreements to the WTO, respectively. Ukraine is negotiating three other agreements with Turkey, Singapore and Serbia. The most important agreement for the two countries is the Association Agreement/FTA that they concluded with the EU in 2014. The economic effects of free trade agreements were rapidly felt in both countries. The EU-Georgia application was launched in September 2014.
While exports to the EU began to decline due to lower world mineral prices (2015-2016), they recovered rapidly, with a 23% increase in 2016-17. Over the same period, the volume of imports from the EU increased slightly. The EU is Georgia`s largest trading partner (with 26.6% of total trade in 2017). In return, the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement has been in force since January 2016. While trade growth was modest in the first year, exports to the EU increased by 3.6 billion euros in 2017, or 27%, and imports from the EU by 3.7 billion euros and 22% respectively. The EU was Ukraine`s main trading partner and accounted for more than 40% of Ukraine`s total trade in 2017. Overall, free trade agreements with the EU have had a positive influence in both cases, helping to diversify Russian exports, increase trade flows and increase the number of products exported. Despite the general public, each agreement contains specific provisions that are not translated into other agreements.