Macedonia and Turkey will boost economic cooperation and exchange of goods that has marked an increase in the past several years, most notably an increase in export of Macedonian goods in Turkey.
It is envisaged by a decision of the mixed committee of the Free Trade Agreement between Macedonia and Turkey, signed by Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bektesi and his Turkish counterpart Nihat Zeybekci.
Under the decision, signed during Bektesi's visit to Ankara, Protocol 2 is amended to pave the way for provisions to implement the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (PEM Convention) and to expand possibilities for diagonal cumulation of origin of goods with other countries.
The application of the PEM Convention, ratified by Macedonia in 2012 and in 2013 by Turkey, enables the establishment of identical rules of origin, thus the diagonal cumulation of rules of origin will apply for EU members, and the CEFTA countries implementing the Stabilization and Association Agreements and the EFTA states, elaborated Macedonia's Ministry of Economy.
Furthermore, Bektesi and Zeybekci agreed the two countries in the coming period to set up teams of experts tasked with modernizing the Free Trade Agreement. It will allow for it to be harmonized with the rules of services of the World Trade Organization and it will pave the way for new negotiations in the agricultural and food sector in the interest of the business community, including investments.
Turkey is in the top ten trade partners of Macedonia, being ranked eight, according to the volume of trade. In the period between January and November 2017, overall trade exchange marked an increase of 0.8% compared to the same period in 2016. Export marked a rise of 21.7% with import growing by 5%.