Turkeyś competitiveness in the European Union : a comparison with five candidate countries - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania - and the EU 15

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the international competitiveness of the Turkish economy and the structure of specialisation in foreign trade in comparison with the five EU candidate countries - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Rumania, Poland - and the EU/15. This research work attempts to find out Turkey's ability to overcome difficulties and challenges that might arise from the hard competition with the enlarged EU, mainly in the field of foreign trade.