About

We are happy to present you TURKONFED’s new project entitled “Improvement of Customs Union for Fair Trade and Competitiveness of SMEs”, which has been initiated as a result of the fact that the Customs Union Agreement, which entered into force on 31 December 1995, that aims to create awareness for the update of the Customs Union by proposing agenda items in favor of SMEs to work more efficiently and to further integrate with the European market. Since the project also includes the SMEs in the EU, TURKONFED has partnered up with Business Alliance of Slovakia (PAS), which represents the EU aspect of the project.

Goals of the project:

  • To increase the competitiveness of SMEs within the Customs Union perspective,
  • To identify the problems faced by SMEs in the existing Customs Union framework,
  • To propose policy recommendations in the process of modernizing the Customs Union for the benefit of SMEs,
  • To establish a public opinion for for the modernization of the Customs Union as well as contribute to the sectoral database moving forward with this agenda.

Project Activities and Outputs:

  • Kick-off meeting,
  • Inauguration ceremony,
  • Round table meetings Turkey and Slovakia,
  • Establishing an online cooperation platform where representatives of SMEs can signup and express their opinions of this process,
  • Preparing country reports for modernizing the Customs Union,
  • Study visits both in Turkey and Slovakia,
  • Preparing a declaration paper consisting policy recommendations,
  • An international Seminar in Istanbul,
  • Preparing the final report.