AN ANALYSIS OF THE TRADE COMPETITIVENESS OF TURKISH, POLISH AND CEZCH AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the trade competitiveness of automotive industry which has significant shares in the productions and exports of Turkish, Polish and Czech manufacturing sectors, especially after the year 2000. In this study, trade data between the period 2001-2019, which are prepared with respect to the Harmonized Classification (HS) system at the 2 and 4 digits level, have been used. In measuring the country’s international trade competitiveness, we have utilised two different Revealed Comparative Advantage indices (RCA). The results of RCA tests at the industry level show that Turkey and Poland both have a low level of competitiveness in the exports of road vehicles industry, while Czechia has a mid level of competitiveness in the same industry. In addition, the results of the sub-sectoral RCA tests indicate that Turkey has a high level of competitiveness in the exports of passenger and goods carrying vehicles, Poland has a high level of competitiveness in the exports of passenger carrying vehicles only, while Czechia has a mid level of competitiveness in the exports of passenger carrying vehicles and products that are equipped with high-tech features (private cars and their equipments and parts).