New opportunities lie ahead for local exports in post-pandemic Europe
THE pandemic highlighted the importance of geographical proximity and strong cooperation among neighbors,” Eskinazi said.
He noted that Turkey has a greater advantage of filling the void in post-pandemic foreign trade due to its young and dynamic population, qualified workforce and fast production capabilities.
“Using this power to expand our exports in neighboring countries will be a solid step to get a larger share in the EU market,” Eskinazi said.
Eskinazi said targeting the East European markets, especially Bulgaria and Romania, could bring new opportunities for Turkish exporters in the post-pandemic period. Turkey recorded a total of $1.36 billion (TL 9.32 billion) exports to Romania and $875 million exports to Bulgaria in the January-March period.
Turkey has been cited as one of the countries that stands to gain the most from a shift of supply chains amid the pandemic and could emerge stronger from the crisis.
A recent study by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) found that of over three dozen countries where the bank invests, Turkey has a “revealed comparative advantage (RCA).”
Turkey has RCA in 189 product groups, the largest of any country in the EBRD regions. The country also proved to have a significant delivery deadline advantage over the Far East.
RCA, defined as the ratio of a product’s share in a country’s total exports and the share of that product in global trade, helps measure the extent to which countries could benefit from a shift of supply chains away from China, currently the dominant global supplier.