Non-oil trade of Turkey and Russia in the Middle East: Trends and potential

Abstract. Over the last years Turkey has rediscovered trade opportunities with Middle Eastern countries, enjoying a trade surplus with most of them. As one of the big players in the region, Russia has also experienced remarkable trade relationship with Middle Eastern countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competitiveness and trade pattern of Turkey and Russia in non-oil commodities vis-à-vis Middle Eastern countries using both Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index and Trade Complementarity (TC) index. The paper also aims to examine their role and position as trading actors in the region and lays downs future cooperation opportunities based on main empirical findings.Keywords. Turkey, Russia, Middle East, Revealed Comparative Advantage, Trade Complementarity Index, Non-oil trade.JEL. F13, F14, L60