COMPARING THE FOREIGN TRADE AND LOGISTIC PERFORMANCE OF TURKEY AND EU MEMBERS WITH CLUSTER ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study aims to compare foreign trade and logistic performance of Turkey and EU members and herewith to put forward the position of Turkey as regard to EU members by taking import and export data into consideration. Logistic performance indexes and import/export data of Turkey and 28 EU members are analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis for the year 2014. Six different elements of logistic performance index are included in the analysis procedure. Foreign trade volumes of each country, which are composed of imports and exports, and rates of exports meeting imports that are calculated for each country are included in the analysis procedure as well. Besides, in the supplementary analysis, the relationship between logistic performance of each country and their gross domestic product per capita are analyzed. After conducting cluster analysis, there appeared five different groups of countries in which Turkey positioned at the medium performance level countries such as Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Besides,  there is a significant and strong relationship between logistic performance of each country and their gross domestic product per capita. By analyzing foreign trade of Turkey and EU members, Turkey’s position and group-mates are revealed.  These results will provide important insights for potential competition between Turkey and EU members in terms of foreign trade and logistic performance.

Keywords

• Foreign trade,import/export,logistic performance index,Turkey,EU

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