Research Information System
EconTR2024 V. International Conference on Economics, İstanbul, Turkey, 16 - 18 May 2024, pp.1-20, (Summary Text)
This study examines Turkey's agricultural foreign trade
performance across vegetable products, animal products, and processed food
products using Widodo's (2008) products mapping approach. In the realm of
international trade studies, a multitude of indices have been devised to
ascertain specialization grounded on comparative advantages, discern foreign
trade patterns, and assess trade performance. These indices have been widely
utilized across different countries or country groupings, markets, and
industries, showcasing their versatile applicability within the field.
While numerous methods exist to analyze countries' foreign
trade performance across different products, this study conducts a comparative
theoretical evaluation of these methods, summarizes recent studies, and favors
the use of the products mapping approach to analyze Turkey's foreign trade in
agricultural products. The study has two primary objectives. Firstly, it aims
to compare and discuss the most common indicators of foreign trade performance
within their theoretical frameworks. Secondly, it examines foreign trade in
agricultural products to present a detailed analysis at the 6-digit level of
the Harmonised System product classification for the period of 2002-2018.
The findings reveal that in 2018, the export share of
products falling under category A, which indicates a comparative advantage and
a positive trade balance, exceeds 80% across all three product groups. However,
it is noted that while the net trade balance of products in category A has
tended to increase in Livestock and Processed food products, it has stagnated
in vegetable products after 2011. Additionally, processed food products
demonstrated comparatively favorable performance in comparison to other primary
product groups. While the trade balance of the least advantageous products
(group D) remains stagnant, there is a noticeable trend of increasing foreign
trade balance in products classified under group A.