Evolution and level of agricultural support in Turkey and in the European Union

Abstract

The developments of agricultural support policies in Turkey and in the European Union are different from each other. When the EU was applying protectionist policies, Turkey was on the way of liberalising its economy in 1980s. After Uruguay Round (1995), developed countries took steps for reducing protectionist policies in agriculture for the first time. As Turkey and European Union were signatories of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, they reduced their support levels. Despite the successful reforms and WTO (World Trade Organization) commitments, support level in the European Union remained high. Only in the last years, producer support estimate had a decreasing trend. Instead, Turkey increased the support policy that requires production and so producer support estimate increased after 2000. While the support level is not as high as in the EU, producer support estimate is at EU and OECD levels in the last years. This paper, so as to contribute to the literature, examines the agricultural support policies and levels in Turkey and in the European Union for better understanding the differences between them. In this regard, the aim of the paper is to develop an approach to comment on the differences in agricultural policies by comparing them and on the protection levels between Turkey and European Union by using Producer Support Estimate of OECD.