COMPARISON OF TURKISH FOREIGN TRADE STRUCTURE AND COMPETITIVENESS POWER WITH OECD COUNTRIES

Abstract

In today's global economic conditions, the way for the countries to increase their competitiveness and effectiveness depends on being able to export the products they produce as well as being productive. There is a widespread belief that the country's export power contributes significantly to sustainable economic growth. Therefore, countries are making great efforts to increase their international trade and market shares. The export revenues obtained will not only contribute to economic growth, but will also enable new investments in the country to meet the needs of infrastructure, health, education and to ensure social welfare. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the Turkey's foreign trade structure and competitiveness power comparing with the OECD countries during the period 2000 - 2009 by employing the TOPSIS method. In the analysis, nine foreign trade competition indexes are used to compare 31 OECD countries with data integrity. Selected variables or indices are widely used in cross country comparison. TOPSIS method, one of the multi-criteria decision making techniques, is used for comparison. Analysis showed that Turkey's competitiveness in foreign trade cannot show a remarkable development since 2000, but it is seen that there has been a small leap in 2009. In general, it is observed that the foreign trade balance could not be established in the all years within the period 2000-2009. Turkey has still required the important and constructive interferences in the line with export-led growth model.