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Turkey GA2 ECOFIN

The document discusses two topics: commodity price rises due to international conflict, and addressing circumvention of sanctions. For the first topic, Turkey believes international cooperation is needed to stabilize commodity prices. Turkey has been impacted by rising inflation and debt due to COVID-19 and the Ukraine-Russia war. Turkey proposes solutions like maximizing resource use, promoting domestic products, and reconstructing infrastructure in conflict zones. For the second topic, Turkey complies with international law but opposes unilateral sanctions. Turkey will take action against sanctions evasion but believes some refusals are legitimate given its strategic location. Turkey proposes addressing the root causes of disputes, ensuring sanctions are a greater deterrent than any benefits of circumventing them, and restricting information networks

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Elena Zheng
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15 views

Turkey GA2 ECOFIN

The document discusses two topics: commodity price rises due to international conflict, and addressing circumvention of sanctions. For the first topic, Turkey believes international cooperation is needed to stabilize commodity prices. Turkey has been impacted by rising inflation and debt due to COVID-19 and the Ukraine-Russia war. Turkey proposes solutions like maximizing resource use, promoting domestic products, and reconstructing infrastructure in conflict zones. For the second topic, Turkey complies with international law but opposes unilateral sanctions. Turkey will take action against sanctions evasion but believes some refusals are legitimate given its strategic location. Turkey proposes addressing the root causes of disputes, ensuring sanctions are a greater deterrent than any benefits of circumventing them, and restricting information networks

Uploaded by

Elena Zheng
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic A: Commodity Price Rises in Relation to International Conflict

Past Action
A world of conflict is inevitable. The impacts on commodity prices due to international conflict
have morphed into a serious issue for our society. The United Nations has set precedents for
responding to this issue, such as the 2007-2008 food crisis, or providing financial aid to support
Yemen’s food insecurity. Speaking on a national level, Turkey has also contributed to actions to
alleviate the circumstances. Despite Turkey being an upper-middle-income country, we have
been hit hard by COVID-19 and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. To stabilize the economy and
limit imports, the Central Bank of Turkey has boosted interest rates (from 8% to 30%) and has
imposed tax cuts.
Turkey’s position
As the delegate of Turkey, we believe that the issue at hand is not insolvable but one that
involves international contributions. Turkey's civil law systems are based on various European
legal systems, in particular the Swiss Civil Code; therefore, we believe that we will share similar
values in terms of policymaking with other European countries and the USA. Turkey would
welcome and, to some extent, is willing to comply with the EU’s propositions on mitigating the
issue of commodity price rises. That being said, Turkey believes that applying sanctions as a
consequence of international conflict is inefficacious. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in
2015 could be an example, for it took five years to create an actual impact. Moreover,
regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, sanctions against the Russian Federation have already had an
impact on the economy of the eurozone, and years of sanctions could have dire consequences.
Even though Turkey does not belong to the Eurozone, we are also heavily influenced by its
impacts. Turkey’s public debt has been increasing, from 29.41% of GDP in 2018 to 41.97% of
GDP in 2020. As a country, we need more finance to sustain our economy. The fact that our
imports ($31.8B) were greater than our exports ($19.6B) shows that we are more dependent on
non-domestic products, meaning that stabilisation in commodity prices and state relations are
essential to our nation. In short, Turkey would be delighted to encourage belligerent countries
to find a common middle ground so as not to further exacerbate the rise in commodity prices.
Possible solutions
We believe that one possible solution is to maximise the use of purchased commodities. In this
way, we could reduce the chance of purchasing products, save more money, and be less
affected by the price rise. The municipal solid waste generated annually in Turkey is 31.283
milliones, and we believe a portion of it could have been used more prudently. Furthermore,
promoting domestic products could also be a short-term solution. Since products are produced
domestically, when setting prices, they would be relatively lower because they do not require
paying customs and import duties before reaching the end consumer. As for long-term
solutions, we believe that we should focus on the stakeholders that are most severely affected
by this issue, which are the Emerging Market and Developing (EMDEs). The lack of supply,
coupled with higher prices, made commodities less accessible to consumers. Therefore, we
believe we should call upon the United Nations to raise funds for them. Lastly, in order to both
maintain a good relationship with member countries and ensure the availability of commodities
in the future, Turkey believes that funding and reconstructing the infrastructure destroyed by
the conflict in the belligerent country would be another reasonable approach. In light of the
country has the geographical advantage to cultivate certain raw materials or extract certain
energy sources. Overall, we believe that it will be effective in preventing famines and economic
recessions.

Topic B – Addressing Circumvention of sanctions


Past Action
The United Nations has been addressing sanctions to identities that had threats to international
peace or violations of international humanitarian law. Turkey as well, has participated in
discussions and votes in international congresses related to sanctions against certain countries.
There are no sanctions imposed by the UN against Turkey by far. However, Turkey’s key
members’ in the Ministry of Defence have been imposed sanctions by the United States of
America due to missile trading with the Russian Federation.

Turkey’s Position
As a member of the UN and the NATO, Turkey to an extend complies with the international law,
but maintains reservations about unilateral sanctions by countries such as the United States
and calls for multilateral sanctions. Notwithstanding that Turkey believes sanctions should not
be introduced that easily, when the issue could potentially be alleviated through dialogues,
Turkey is willing to take legal actions in response to sanctions evasion that has and is happening
on our territory. Furthermore, Turkey believes that it is legitimate for nations to refuse on
certain sanctions to certain countries. As Turkey lies on a strategic location at the crossroads of
Europe and Asia, we cannot afford breaking ties with countries that could lead our nation to
suffer.

Possible Solutions
Creating committees, various embargos, and economically supporting third party countries that
agree with sanctions to other countries, all these have shown to be ineffective. In order to
prevent existing sanctioned entities from embarking on a path of corruptive or criminal
activities, Turkey believes we should investigate mechanisms for resolving disagreements that
may lead to sanctions, such as diplomatic discourse or mediation. Furthermore, we believe
future sanctions should have the effect that sanctioned entities will realise that the weight of
punishment is much greater than the weight in which they can afford from conducting
inappropriate actions. Thus, if the subjects were individuals or companies, they will not receive
any future financial support from the government and restrictions will be applied; They are
prohibited from leaving the country or expand their business in another country unless the
approval of government. Day-to-day restrictions can also be advocated, such as placing them
on a blacklist, whereby insiders are required to pay a percent more taxes than the usual
percentage on any purchases. Moreover, they can also be prohibited from buying large villas,
limiting their right to enjoy life. Furthermore, if the sanctions were imposed to states, we can
restrict the networks of their countries, meaning to restrict access to foreign information to
people in the sanctioned countries. This way, no third party would be directly involved, hence
the national relationship would not be affected as much as trade embargos. Lastly, in order to
diminish the power of the sanctioned state in the international community, we should
disqualify persons of that nationality from receiving important prizes, such as the Nobel Prize.

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