The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) announced that from 4 to 6 April 2017, delegations from the EFTA States and Turkey met in Ankara for the fourth round of negotiations on the modernisation and expansion of their existing free trade agreement (FTA). The announcement said:
The parties made significant progress in respect of the update and expansion of the FTA. Discussions were held in several areas, most notably in trade in goods, including technical barriers to trade, rules of origin and trade facilitation; trade in services; intellectual property rights; and legal and horizontal matters. Both sides agreed to continue the negotiations with the aim of concluding the update before the end of 2017, and agreed to hold the fifth round in autumn. Intersessional discussions on various outstanding issues will be held in the meantime.
