WT/REG462/N/1  
S/C/N/1076  
 
15 February 2022  
(22-1468) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  
Council for Trade in Services  Original: English  
 
NOTIFICATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT  
1. Member(s) notifying:   
Turkey and t he EFTA States  (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland)  
2. Date of notification:   
14 February 2022  
3. Notification pursuant to  
[X] Article XXIV:7(a) of GATT 1994  
[X] Article V:7(a) of GATS  
[ ] Paragraph 4(a) of the Enabling Clause  
4. Parties to the Agreement:   
Turkey and t he EFTA States  (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Nor way and Switzerland)  
5. Date of signature:   
25 June 2018  
6. Date(s) of entry into Force:   
1 October 2021  
7. Brief description of the Agreement:   
The modernized Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Republic of Turkey and t he EFTA 
States  establishes a free trade area between these countries, consistent with Article XXIV 
of GATT 1994, and Article V of GATS. The moderni zed FTA aims to liberali ze and facilitate 
trade in goods and services between the Parties in accordance with the provisions of this 
Agreement and replaces the 1992 -FTA between the Parties.1 
The FTA consists of 10 Chapters and 21 Annexes and contains the areas of elimination of 
tariffs and non -tariff barriers, rules of origin , trade facilitation,  sanitary and phytosanitary 
meas ures, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, trade in services,  intellectual 
property rights, competition, trade and sustainable development, institutional provisions 
and dispute settlement.  
The Parties maintain the practice of applying no customs du ties on imports and exports of 
industrial products including fish and other marine products, originating in the Parties as 
stated in the 1992 -FTA text.  
The Agreement provides for tariff concessions on processed agricultural products, as 
covered by Annex III. Trade in basic agricultural products is covered in three bilateral 
agricultural agreements between each EFTA state and Turkey. These agreements are s till 
 
1 This is of relevance for the following document series: WT/REG86.  WT/REG462/N/1 • S/C/N/1076  
 
- 2 - 
 
  in force, the bilateral agriculture agreement between Switzerland and Turkey has been 
replaced by a new bilateral agreement which expands the existing concessions.  
The Services Chapter closely follows the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services 
(GATS) approach. It covers trade in all services sectors under all four modes of supply. 
Separate annexes on recognition of qualifications of service suppliers (Annex X), 
movement of natural persons supplying services (Annex XI), electronic commerce (Annex 
XIII), telecommunication services (Annex XVI), co -productions (Annex XV), financial 
services (Annex XVI), health services (Annex XVII, not applicable to Iceland, Liechtenstein 
and Norway), tourism and travel services (Annex XVII) and international road trans port 
and logistics services (Annex XIX) complement the chapter with additional disciplines 
specific to those sectors. The Parties' lists of specific commitments and exemptions from 
most-favoured -nation (MFN) treatment are contained in Annexes XII and IX, r espectively.  
8. Text and related schedules, annexes and protocols are:  
[ ] submitted to the WTO Secretariat (electronic format)  
[X] available from the following official Internet  link(s):  
Turkey:     https://www.trade.gov.tr/free -trade-agreements/efta   
The EFTA States:  https://www.efta.int/free -trade/Free -Trade -Agreement/Turkey