Mauritius and Turkey will sign, on 09 September 2011 in Istanbul, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which aims at consolidating ties and spur Mauritian stakeholders to export to Turkey. The Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Dr Arvin Boolell, and the Turkish Minister of Economy, Mr. Caglayan, will sign the Agreement on behalf of the two Governments.
With the FTA, Mauritius will have duty free access on all industrial products. However, some 70 industrial products (mainly textiles) will have duty phased over a period of four years. As regards agricultural products, Mauritius will have preferential access to some 50 products constituting mainly of tropical fruits (pineapples, palm hearts, guavas, mangoes), vegetables, flowers biscuits amongst others. SMEs will thus be able to tap a new market as regards local fruits and flowers.
The Agreement will also include flexible rules of origin. For several products, including textiles, Mauritius exporters would be able to source their raw materials from third countries, manufacture the product in Mauritius and export to Turkey at preferential rates. Mauritius will also be able to use materials from countries having an FTA with Turkey such as the European Union and benefit from preferential treatment. With the conclusion of the FTA Mauritius will, in a nutshell, benefit from more favourable rules compared to the General System of Preferences provided by Turkey.
The FTA will also spare Mauritian textiles and clothing products from being sanctioned by a safeguard duty which Turkey has recently imposed on all textiles products imported from the rest of the world.
It is expected that with the FTA, Turkey will use Mauritius as a launching pad to penetrate the African market especially Eastern and Southern Africa given that Mauritius is the first country of the southern region to sign an FTA with Turkey.
In 2010, Mauritian exports to Turkey accounted for less than 1% of our exports basket constituting mainly of woven cotton apparels and totalling Rs 66 million. Mauritius imported from that country Rs 537 million comprising mainly manufactured products such as electric cables, oven cookers, refrigerators, iron bars, organic soaps, floor and ceiling fittings and sweet biscuits.
It is recalled that negotiations for the FTA started in June 2009 and were completed in January 2011 after five rounds of discussions.
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