Legal Update: Turkey to Take Regulatory Position in Brexit, UK Being Treated as EU Member State During the Transition Period

The long-standing proceedings of Brexit has recently come to the end with having regulatory impacts in each country having trade with the United Kingdom (“UK”).  Turkey as a country having about USD 18 billion trade volume with UK has recently determined how to treat UK’s Brexit during the transition period from regulatory perspective.

To that end, on February1, 2020 the Circular on Transition Period regarding United Kingdom’s Withdrawal from the European Union has been issued by the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey (“Circular”).

It is stated that according to the Withdrawal Agreement, the EU laws will be applied to the UK during transition period, even though the UK would no longer be a member state. Accordingly, acquis and obligations arising from the EU law including the agreements executed by the EU with non-member states will continue to be binding to the UK until the transition period expires.

With this respect, during the transition period as set out under the Withdrawal Agreement, legal status quo will be maintained in terms of any transactions arising from bi-lateral or multi-lateral agreements executed by and between Turkey/EU and the UK will continue to be treated as a EU member state.

With the Circular, government institutions are reminded to take the above issues into consideration and inform and lead the public accordingly as necessary.