Does Liberalization Reduce Foreign Trade Data Discrepancies? Counterevidence from Turkey, 1970-91

ErtuGrul Tokdemir and Gulay Gunluk-Senesen

International Review of Applied Economics, 1997, vol. 11, issue 2, 287-302

Abstract: This paper questions the impact of protectionist and liberal trade policies on foreign trade data discrepancies. Official records of Turkish exports and imports data are compared with data of the major partner countries (OECD, Germany, USA, Italy, Switzerland, France, UK, Benelux) for the period 1970-91. An analysis of detailed data reveals that the patterns of discrepancies are not common to all countries in the pre- and post-liberal years (i.e. before and after 1980). Hence, the Turkish case does not provide full support for the expectation that faked invoicing disappears with the liberalization of the trade regime. In addition, Switzerland emerges as a very exceptional trade partner, as compared with other partners, for both imports and exports. Turkey's exports to Switzerland are overinvoiced up to 700% until 1985, the rate of overinvoicing decreases to 200% after then. On the other hand, imports from Switzerland are overinvoiced up to 250% until again 1985. Overinvoicing of imports disappears in the wake of 1983 December measures. A comparison of imports and exports data of Switzerland with data of the above stated countries reveals that Turkey is also an exceptional partner for Switzerland. The patterns of discrepancies in foreign trade data might be closely related to capital transactions, noting that Switzerland offers the world favourable conditions for financial transactions. We also note that general patterns can be related to those of some specific commodities which might act as a means of transferring capital because the details of the trade regime regulations concerning them can be easily identified. Yet, generally speaking, the consequences of policy implementations do not straightforwardly match with expectations.

Date: 1997
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02692179700000018 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:irapec:v:11:y:1997:i:2:p:287-302

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIRA20

DOI: 10.1080/02692179700000018

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Applied Economics is currently edited by Professor Malcolm Sawyer

More articles in International Review of Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().