The literature on economic integration provides usefil information for examining costs and benefits of customs unions. However, the necessary conditions of creating a beneficial cstoms union are not clear as there is an ambiguity on role of “competitiveness” of member states in assessing the benefits of customs unions. This issue is particularly important in studying the effects of forming a customs union between unequal partners qhere the difference in factor endowments and therefore comparative advantage of member states is notably large. Given the uncertainty on the effect of competitiveness in the analysis of customs unions and the lack of interest in the assessment of customs unions between unequal partners, it is clear that a study of similarity between Turkey and the EU may not only shed some light on assessment of Turkey’s “competitiveness” with regard to the EU but also fulfil the gap in the customs possible effects of Turkey’s accession to the EU.

The literature on economic integration provides usefil information for examining costs and benefits of customs unions. However, the necessary conditions of creating a beneficial cstoms union are not clear as there is an ambiguity on role of “competitiveness” of member states in assessing the benefits of customs unions. This issue is particularly important in studying the effects of forming a customs union between unequal partners qhere the difference in factor endowments and therefore comparative advantage of member states is notably large. Given the uncertainty on the effect of competitiveness in the analysis of customs unions and the lack of interest in the assessment of customs unions between unequal partners, it is clear that a study of similarity between Turkey and the EU may not only shed some light on assessment of Turkey’s “competitiveness” with regard to the EU but also fulfil the gap in the customs possible effects of Turkey’s accession to the EU.