The highlights of the online event "Regional Effects of Global Geopolitical Developments on Turkish Companies", moderated by Abdullah Çerekçi, Chairman of DEİK Foreign Investments Business Council, and Sinan Ülgen, Chairman of the Economics and Foreign Policy Research Center (EDAM) as a speaker, are as follows:
• Economy and Foreign Policy Research Center (EDAM) Chairman of the Board Sinan Ülgen stated that the COVID-19 epidemic will not change the global value chains permanently and that the reason for the decrease in world foreign trade during the epidemic period is due to the decrease in trade rather than the withdrawal of companies from the market.
• One of the most discussed issues with the epidemic was whether Turkey could get a share from the shortening of global value chains and the 'nearshoring' cake. Based on the 2008 crisis, this epidemic is not expected to have a permanent impact on global value chains.
• The European Union, which has not wanted to show a tooth against China until today, is gradually hardening its attitude towards China and can act jointly with the United States on this issue. For this reason, it is expected that the West-China relationship will not be the same as before. In this respect, changes in China's supply chains seem likely. Turkey, on the other hand, seems to be forced to decide which bloc to be close to.
• Technology will have a lasting impact on the course of trade and investments. Manufacturing technologies and new generation automation have a transformative effect. Although the unit cost increased on the Chinese side, productivity increased as well. Labor is no longer the main issue on the EU side. Technology, Production Costs, Politics are becoming evident as the most fundamental transformative and permanence factors.
• The Green Deal points to a serious structural transformation, and with border carbon regulations, Turkey may lose its competitiveness in trade with the European Union, which ranks first in exports.
