WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal will harm Turkey's economic interests, which is why Ankara wants a seat at the negotiating table, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
"Once TTIP becomes enforced it will have a negative impact on Turkey’s trade balance," Erdogan stated during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. "In order to prevent that, we [Turkey] wanted to be included in the negotiations and also in the scope of this agreement."
Turkey is in a customs union with the EU, hence must abide by all EU trade agreements, he explained.
Negotiations on the TTIP agreement have been ongoing since 2013. A draft of the full text of the agreement is expected before the end of the year.
The TTIP deal drew severe criticism from the public for the lack of transparency in the negotiations and the power it would give to international corporations.
The agreement has also been criticized for bypassing the framework of the World Trade Organization and excluding the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.