Analyzing the International Competitiveness of Turkish Textile and Clothing Sector

Turkish textile and clothing sector has maintained its place and significance within national economy and exports for many years. It maintains to be one of the leading textile and clothing exporters of the world by protecting its competitiveness in spite of the increasing international competition. Within this context, this study aims to analyze the international competitiveness of Turkish textile and clothing sector by utilizing three different indices (Balassa, Vollrath and Lafay) and comparing these indices with each other. According to the obtained results, Turkish textile and clothing sector possesses export based competitive advantage at intermediate and advanced level in 10 sub-product groups out of 14 sub-product groups within the last decade. If both export and import data are taken into consideration, it can be seen that the sector possesses competitive advantage and specialization in 9 sub-product groups out of 14 sub-product groups