Türkiye is stepping up efforts to make sure its manufacturers are treated as European under the EU’s planned "Made in Europe" rules, after a Franco-German compromise on the automotive part of the scheme covered the United Kingdom but not Türkiye, Japan or South Korea.
The rules come from the Industrial Accelerator Act, which the European Commission announced on 4 March 2026. The proposal would give priority to European-made products in public procurement and state support schemes, focusing on automotive, steel, cement, aluminium and clean energy technologies, with a preference for low-carbon goods. The EU wants industry’s share of its economy to reach 20% by 2035.
Who counts as European?
The central dispute is which countries’ products qualify. According to NTV, France wants support to go mainly to goods made inside the EU, while Germany wants closely integrated partners included. On 16 October the two agreed that the UK could join the automotive rules under conditions, such as aligning with EU trade defence measures on Chinese-made vehicles. That deal is not final and still needs approval from other member states and the European Parliament.
The March draft had proposed that goods from customs union partners could be treated as equivalent to EU-origin products under certain conditions, but later automotive negotiations have made Türkiye’s position uncertain. Toyota, which builds cars in Türkiye, proposed on 16 October a "Made with Europe" alternative, warning that excluding partners such as the UK, Türkiye and Japan could weaken Europe’s car industry.
Ankara’s argument
Türkiye has been in a customs union with the EU since 1996, covering industrial goods, and its car and parts makers are deeply woven into European supply chains. Trade Minister Ömer Bolat says annual Türkiye-EU trade stands at $233 billion, of which automotive trade accounts for $62 billion.
Bolat told officials in Brussels that the answer should not be to exclude reliable partners or the customs union, and Ankara argues that customs union industrial goods should face no discrimination. He met Commission and Parliament representatives in July, EU ambassadors in Ankara on 7 October, and raised the issue at the Türkiye-EU High-Level Trade Dialogue in Brussels on 13 October. On 19 October the Trade Ministry met representatives of exporters’ and automotive bodies TİM, OİB, OSD and TAYSAD. Bolat said work would continue to have the whole automotive section of the law cover Türkiye.
The stakes are high for a sector already under pressure: Turkish auto production fell in January-September, and provinces such as Sakarya depend heavily on car exports, with two-thirds of its exports coming from vehicles. Business groups have also been pushing to modernise the customs union.
Exports and jobs in the industrial belt around Istanbul, Bursa and Kocaeli are closely tied to the outcome. For a wider picture of household budgets in those regions, see our cost of living in Türkiye guide.
Sources
- AB’nin yeni sanayi planı: Made in Europe nedir, Türkiye’yi nasıl etkileyecek? (NTV)
- Bakan Bolat’tan Brüksel’de ‘Made in EU’ diplomasisi (Hürriyet)
Photo: Diego Delso / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
