INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS : European Parliament Courts Turkey by Approving Free-Trade Pact

Hurried parties, school ceremonies and cheering election-time crowds greeted the European Parliament’s approval Wednesday of a free-trade agreement with Turkey that both sides hope will help better bind this pivotal Muslim country to the West.

Tansu Ciller, Turkey’s prime minister, beamed with triumph at an Istanbul election rally when news came that the European Parliament had voted 343 to 149 to complete a much delayed, 32-year-old process of customs integration between Europe and its poorer, troubled neighbor.

*

Under the new agreement, European Union members will remove tariffs on all Turkish products and Turkey will lift any such levies on EU goods; most of these barriers are expected to fall on New Year’s Day, giving Turkey one of the most privileged trade relationships with the EU of a nonmember nation.

As a result, officials estimate, trade will double within five years and foreign investment in Turkey will boom.

Turkey will also benefit from a five-year European financial package worth up to $3 billion.

“New horizons have opened for Turkey. This is a giant step, a new beginning,” Ciller said after receiving congratulatory calls from the leaders of France and Britain.

The United States had also staunchly supported the customs union, seeing NATO-member Turkey as a role model for a secular Muslim democracy in a region where disadvantaged masses have seen Islamic fundamentalism as the main alternative.

*

In the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, the trade accord had encountered stiff resistance as powerful factions sought to delay the agreement to punish Turkey for its poor human rights record. Turkey has been much criticized in Europe for its repression of separatist Kurds and for its long battle with the Greeks over Cyprus.

But European legislators saw the benefits to European exporters of free access to Turkey’s emerging economy of 65 million consumers on the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East. Many also felt the strategic need to encourage Turkey’s Westernizing ambitions just 11 days before a parliamentary election in which the pro-Islamic Welfare Party is poised to become the biggest single bloc in Parliament.

The Parliament did call for Turkey to make peace in its brutal 11-year-old war with rebel Kurds. EU officials said the next step was a European initiative to solve the Cyprus problem.

Accusing the government of selling out, Turkey’s Islamists have threatened to review the trade accord if they come to power.

Even center-right Motherland Party leader Mesut Yilmaz has condemned it as a “bone thrown out of Europe’s door.” But one poll showed that 72.6% of Turks supported the free-trade pact, seeing that the preparatory process has already brought cheaper goods and better laws.