The incentive measures for activities providing foreign currency earnings, along with the regulations aimed at ex-ports, of which a significant portion was started in 1980, provided great contributions for industry to gain competitive power, and for the exports to increase. Free trade zones and international fairs opened in Turkey have been very influential in the development of Turkish industry and its integration with world markets. The Customs Union Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Turkey, that went into effect as of 1996, favorably influenced the competitive power of Turkish industry, because intermediary and investment goods which could be imported less expensively and more easily, raised the quality of the production in the industrial sector.