Free Trade Vs Protection, the Free Movement of Goods In the European Union, Adaptation of Turkey

Free trade policies imply that goods, services, labor force and capital can circulate without any barriers. Although sustainability of free trade is debatable, principle of free movement of goods is first step of beginning stage of economics integration. However, practicing free trade is not an easy goal when hardness of globalization economy is considered. Therefore, countries prefer to partial trade by blocking trade that are derived from regional integration levels, remove the trade barriers of goods and apply protectionism for foreign trade. The main goal of free movement of goods is to success the law of one price by globally equalizing the supply surplus and demand surplus. Some economists criticize free trade and claim that free trade causes may income inequality between countries. As for some economist, they support free trade. Additionally, they take the claim one step forward and say soldier pass borders of the countries who do not allow goods to pass their border. Free trade supporters argue that trade opens the barriers for the exchange of goods that increase economic profits. Historically, Word economy was hit by the several crises led to the decline growth and trade volume of economies and protection policies become popular to solve trade deficit and unemployment problem. Crisis periods generated the criticizes functioning of the free market (Pareto optimum) and regional economic integration started to choose the 2.nd optimal (cooperative) policy choices and The European Union as a model for regional integration has been open trade inside the border but protect its agriculture, manufactures, industries and workers from the rest of the world. The first step required to create a regional community such as a free trade area, a customs union, a single market, a single currency is to the principle of free movement of the goods. In order to bring the advantages of free trade, free movement of goods (Mundell’s factors of production, and flexible wage) has been considered by the European Union as the one of the main success conditions of monetary union since Rome Treaty was signed. 1963 Ankara Agreement, 1971 The Additional Protocol, 1996 Custom Union are three important milestones determined the procedures about the free movement of goods between Turkey and European Union. Adapting certain regulations and decisions in the fields of free movement of goods has been negotiated since Turkey was accepted as candidate country for EU membership following the Helsinki European Council of December 1999. As one of the chapters in Union’s acquis communautaire, adaptation of free movement of goods must be realized to prepare Turkey for future membership. The purpose of this study is to evaluate Turkey s ability to apply Union’s measures on the basis of the principle of the free movement of goods. For this reason, Section I details the discussion of the free trade-protection and the impacts on free movement of goods. Section II concentrates the principle of free movement of goods in EU. Section III summarize and analyzes the progress reports of Turkey to determine to what extent Turkey meets the EU’s criteria of free movement of goods.