Turkey

The latest and, according to many observers, most important meeting in the ongoing Doha Round of global trade talks opened in Cancun, Mexico on September 10th. As trade ministers from the World Trade Organisation’s member states arrived for what promised to be a tough week of discussion and debate, agricultural subsidies - that most stubborn of free-trade barriers - was on everyone’s mind. Almost two years after it was opened in the Qatari capital, the Doha Round has accomplished little. Farmers have proven a most resilient bunch and their sway in many of the world’s leading industrial countries threatens to undermine the wider aims of global free traders.

With the investigation into one of Turkey’s top business empires still widening and deepening, troubling revelations about the embattled Uzan Group have now led to bigger question marks over the general health of Turkey’s banking system.

The following interview with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is taken from the forthcoming Oxford Business Group publication, Emerging Turkey 2004. For more information on how to order a copy of the most comprehensive review of the Turkish economy to date, please write to us at mail@oxfordbusinessgroup.com.

After the passage of an important European Union harmonization package through parliament in early August, many Turks had begun to wonder just how the new reforms would go down with the country's powerful military. With their powers curbed, some opposition from the generals - and their stanch secularist allies - was widely expected. However, this has so far failed to materialize, as the government has adopted a "go softly" approach to the legislation's implementation, with the public's broad support for EU membership giving the harmonization package a sound political basis.

Turkish investors and voters were in bullish mood this week, after a rash of positive economic and political news. This had sent markets higher, delighted the country’s pro-European camp and further strengthened the hand of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Despite high level negotiations in Ankara, Russia and Turkey failed yet again to resolve a price and volume dispute over natural gas mid-July, though Turkey's energy minister suggested a settlement was still possible as the month drew to a close - and that gas shipments might even resume on August 1.