20 As can be readily seen from Table 10, which presents Turkey’s exports and imports in terms of technological and resource intensity, the most visible change in Turkey’s EU-oriented exports has been a dramatic shift towards medium and high technology products. The value of their exports increased eight-fold between 1995 and 2004 growing at an average rate of 21.5 percent over 1995-2003. The average rate of growth for low tech and unskilled labor intensive products was 5.4 percent and that for resource intensive products amounted to 9.9 percent.. If these growth rates continue over 2004-05, the value of exports of medium and high technology products will exceed that of low tech and labor intensive products by the end of 2005. The share of medium to high tech products rose from 13 percent in 1995 to 25 percent in 2000 and 37 percent in 2004. The growth in exports was not solely the result of expanding EU import demand for these products but also of stronger competitiveness of Turkish suppliers. They increased their share in EU external imports of these products from 0.6 percent in 1995 to 0.9 percent in 2000, 2.1 percent in 2003 and to 2.5 percent in 2004.

**Table 10** : _“Technology content” of trade with EU-25 and patterns of specialization in 1996, 2000-2004 (in million of US dollars and percent)_

||||||||Index 200|4|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Factor Input|1995|2000|2001|2002|2003|2004|1995=10020|00=100|
||**Turkey's**<br>|**Exports**<br>|**to EU2**<br>|**5($ mill**<br>|**ion)**<br>||||
|Low tech products & labor intensive|8,459|9,552|10,361|11,630|14,805|16,422|194|172|
|Medium to high tech products|1,623|4,112|5,325|7,041|10,297|13,157|810|320|
|Resourceintensive products|2,078|3,087|3,398|3,579|4,729|5,708|275|185|
||**Turkey's**<br>|**Export**<br>|**Share(**<br>|**%)**<br>|||||
|Low tech products & labor intensive|69.6|57.0|54.3|52.3|49.6|46.5|67|82|
|Medium to high tech products|13.3|24.5|27.9|31.6|34.5|37.3|279|152|
|Resourceintensive products|17.1|18.4|17.8|16.1|15.9|16.2|95|88|
||**Exports i**<br>|**nperce**<br>|**nt of Im**<br>|**ports(%**<br>|**)**<br>||||
|Low tech products & labor intensive|402|430|546|479|510|507|126|118|
|Medium to high tech products|20|26|59|62|60|56|280|217|
|Resourceintensive products|36|38|53|43|41|40|111|105|
||**Share in**|**EU25 E**|**xternal I**|**mports(**|**%)**||||
|Low tech products & labor intensive|5.9|6.5|6.8|7.3|7.8|8.3|142|129|
|Medium to high tech products|0.5|0.9|1.3|1.7|2.1|2.5|453|262|
|Resourceintensive products|0.8|0.9|1.0|1.1|1.2|1.2|151|132|
||**Export S**<br>|**pecializ**<br>|**ation In**<br>|**dex**<br>|||||
|Low tech products & labor intensive|3.4|3.5|3.2|2.9|2.8|2.8|84|80|
|Medium to high tech products|0.3|0.5|0.6|0.7|0.8|0.8|268|162|
|Resource intensiveproducts|0.5|0.5|0.5|0.4|0.4|0.4|89|82|

Source: Computations based on EU25 data from UN COMTRADE Statistics.

Yet, low technology and unskilled labor intensive products still remain Turkey’s major specialization in EU markets. Turkey has a very strong revealed export specialization in EU markets for these products. The value of Export Specialization Index (ESI—ratio of their share in Turkish EU-oriented exports to their share in EU total external imports) is well below unity,<sup>8</sup> albeit it has been declining. Turkish suppliers have a significant and growing presence in these markets. Turkish exports accounted for 8 percent of EU total imports of low tech and unskilled labor intensive products in 2003. Furthermore, Turkish exporters have been consistently outperforming other competitors, as their share in EU external imports of these products has been 8 The export specialization index (ESij) for a product _j_ of country _i_ , is specified here as follows: ESij = (xij/Xi) /(mj/M), where: xij is country i’s exports of product j to the EU; Xi = Σ j xij is country i’s total exports to the EU; Mj = Σ j xij is EU’s total ‘external’ imports of a product _j_ ; M = Σ i Σ j xij is EU’s total external imports. A value for this index below unity indicates a comparative disadvantage. If the index takes a value greater than unity, the country is considered to have a "revealed" comparative advantage in the product. In this particular case, Turkey has a revealed comparative advantage in a product if its export of that item as a share of its total exports exceeds the EU imports of the item as a share of EU total imports.