The first high-level trade dialogue between Türkiye and the European Union will be held in Brussels on Monday, co-chaired by Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
Bolat and Dombrovskis will meet with EU and Turkish business community representatives in a roundtable meeting in the morning, and intergovernmental meetings will be held in the afternoon, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Sunday.
Progress on bilateral trade issues and areas of cooperation, including the green and digital agenda, will be discussed within the framework determined at the Trade Working Group meeting held in Oct. 2023.
Discussions aimed at deepening the Türkiye-EU trade and economic cooperation are also planned.
The high-level trade dialogue between Türkiye and the EU was among the recommendations in the joint declaration on the current state of Türkiye-EU political, trade, and economic relations in Nov. 2023, and it was decided that the first meeting under this mechanism would be held on July 8, 2024.
The announcement for the dialogue came after a meeting between Bolat and Dombrovskis at the newly opened Brussels representative office of the Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TIM) earlier this year.
This dialogue will provide an important platform for addressing the Türkiye-EU trade and economic relations at the highest level and for continuing positive work on updating the Customs Union.
Türkiye and the EU are significant trading partners, with the trade volume steadily increasing over the years to reach over 206 billion euros ($223 billion) in 2023, elevating Türkiye to the position of the EU’s fifth-largest trading partner.