Economy & Energy
EU and Türkiye hold third High-Level Dialogue on Trade in Brussels, with €217.6 billion in bilateral trade
Šefčovič and Bolat co-chaired the 13 October talks, which covered customs reform, the TAREKS import-control barrier and sanctions anti-circumvention.
The European Union and Türkiye held the third EU-Türkiye High-Level Dialogue on Trade in Brussels on 13 October 2026, and published a joint statement afterwards. The dialogue was co-chaired by Maroš Šefčovič, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency, and Ömer Bolat, Türkiye’s Minister of Trade.
The statement says bilateral trade reached €217.6 billion in 2025 and describes Türkiye as a candidate country and a major trade partner of the EU. A business roundtable took place before the dialogue. The two sides reviewed progress in trade, stressed the importance of the EU-Türkiye Customs Union, and discussed steps to improve the business environment.
Customs and trade barriers
The sides welcomed progress on customs reform, including e-commerce, and committed to advancing implementation of the Mutual Recognition Agreement on Authorised Economic Operators. The EU welcomed Türkiye’s completed alignment with the new EU Machinery Regulation. According to the statement, Türkiye will remove the barrier on import controls under its TAREKS system, and the parties agreed to keep working on practical issues raised by EU operators.
Other market access questions remain on the table. Talks will continue on export taxes on hides, skins and wet-blue leather, on import surveillance, on textile import surveillance by registration, and on alcoholic beverages. The statement also notes progress on Türkiye’s access to the EU energy labelling registry (EPREL), while technical discussions will cover access to the CPNP cosmetics notification portal and batch release for pharmaceutical products.
Areas for further work
The joint statement lists technical legislation alignment, public procurement, circular economy, business mobility, digital trade, trade defence, cooperation in the World Trade Organization and anti-circumvention of EU sanctions as areas for future engagement. Technical work on digital trade will address mutual recognition of electronic signatures.
The two sides said they would stay in close contact and work towards practical solutions for what the statement calls a more predictable, transparent and mutually beneficial trade relationship, and would use the dialogue to keep momentum and identify further areas of cooperation. The statement is a trade document and does not address the political issues between Brussels and Ankara.
