The Passific Alliance and Turkey

Turkey became an observer state in the Pacific Alliance in 2013. Following the membership, a Joint Trade Office was established by the Alliance in Istanbul, which remains active to this day. The Alliance represents 37 percent of GNP and 52 percent of the total trade of Latin America and Caribbean region. Also, 45 percent of foreign direct investments to the region are made in the member states of the Alliance.

Due to its pure economic content and commercial potential facing the future, the Pacific Alliance attracts attention of the countries outside the region as well. The Pacific Alliance, offering observer states active participation through diverse projects, remains a huge opportunity to enter and to develop relations with the Latin America market. The Alliance focuses mainly in “SMEs participation to international markets”, “Promoting the SMEs”, and “logistics issues”. Presenting projects focusing on such issues at the Alliance Summit and conducting joint projects with the Latin American equivalent partners would be highly effective in promoting Turkey’s capabilities and Turkish companies’ strength.

In fact, one of the most important issues in the Latin America market is that Turkish goods and services are not adequately known in the continent. The Pacific Alliance here is a great opportunity ad- dressing to this issue. In this context, Turkey adopted the goal of deepening its relationships with the Pacific Alliance, encompassing the rising economies of the Latin America region and bearing importance in terms of our political and economic policies.