Revealed Comparative Advantage of Turkish Leather Industry: A Comparison with Selected Asian Countries

In the last 15 years, the export of leather and leather products of Turkey has grown 35 percent. Today, Turkey’s leather and leather products exports reached $669 million a year. The main objective of this study is to determine the competitiveness of Turkey’s leather industry against some selected Asian countries (China, Hong Kong and India) during the period 2001-2017. Data has been taken from International Trade Centre. In this study revealed comparative advantage, revealed symmetric comparative advantage and trade balance indexes used. According to research Turkey has a comparative advantage in the HS 43 product group. The other HS 41 and HS 42 products groups have a comparative disadvantage. To improve the international competitiveness of Turkey in leather trade should pay attention to the quality and design in production