European Union's Multilateralism on Trade Policies, Custom Unions and Free Trade Agreements;Comparative SWOT Analyses of Turkey and South Korea's Automotive Industries

The foreign trade policies of the states may vary depending on the circumstances in the globalizing world economy. The states which seek to take advantage of the global economy by increasing the size of the foreign trade volume create regional and non-regional trade blocs. The European Union (EU), in consideration of the political and economic developments in respect to the Customs Union that it had paid attention to in the 1990s, revised its trade liberalization policies and moved from the CU to the free trade agreements (FTA). The change in the trade policies in the EU concerns developing economies including Turkey and South Korea. The automotive sector is the sixth largest sector in the world. This industry is one of the most important export areas of developing countries like Turkey and South Korea which seek to improve their welfare by adopting export-based development model. In 1996, Turkey made a trade liberalization agreement with the EU, and South Korea in 2010, to reduce the tariff rates in the field of industrial products. For both countries, the level of influence upon the exports in automotive sectors by the trade liberalization policies holds great importance for the future of the national economies. This study wants to offer some SWOT analyses pf the agreements signed with the EU on the automotive sectors of the two countries.