Brexit won’t affect Turkey’s exports to UK and EU: Minister

ANKARA

Brexit will not affect Turkey’s exports to the EU and the U.K., the Turkish customs and trade minister has said.        

What matters most in trade was mutual interests, Customs and Trade Minister Bülent Tüfenkçi told Anadolu Agency, highlighting that there would always be a market as long as quality products and competitive prices existed. 

Noting that the EU was not “irreplaceable,” he said the bloc would now have to revise its strategies and policies following the U.K. vote.        

Turkey “respects the [British] people’s decision,” Tüfenkçi said. 

On June 23, almost 52 percent of the U.K.’s-registered voters opted to leave the EU in a historic referendum which was dubbed Brexit.  
     
Brexit has sparked worries across European capitals over the political future of the bloc.      

“What is important for us is to improve our democracy and economy by diversifying production and markets,” the minister said.        

Tüfenkçi also said the EU could increase its power by granting membership to Turkey, which he noted had fulfilled most of the criteria outlined in its accession negotiations. 

“We are expecting a sincere approach from the EU while we have been sincerely working to fulfill the criteria in our EU accession process,” he said.

Britain’s shock vote to pull out of the EU wiped $2.1 trillion from global equity markets only on June 24 as traders panicked in the face of a new threat to the global economy.

Investors fled to the safety of gold, the yen and blue-chip bonds as the seismic shift in the structure of Europe left many huge questions hanging, including who will lead Britain following the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Brexit vote sparked eight percent losses in the Tokyo and Paris bourses, nearly seven percent in Frankfurt and more than three percent in London and New York.  
   
Central banks stepped in to bolster confidence, promising to inject liquidity where needed and appearing to mitigate some of the sharpest losses.

Still, the pound crashed 10 percent to a 31-year low at one point, before rebounding slightly for a 9.1 percent loss against the greenback in late trade.

The euro also plummeted, dropping 2.6 percent on the dollar.

Benefitting from a massive safety selloff, gold jumped nearly five percent and the yen surged 4.2 percent against the dollar and 7.0 percent on the euro. The dollar at one point fell below 100 yen for the first time since November 2013.

US 10-year treasury bond yields hit their lowest since 2012 at 1.42 percent before edging higher, while the German 10-year bund fell into negative territory for the second time in history.

Analysts say the split of Britain with the EU could slow trade and investment in the country and hit its key financial industry, possibly pushing the economy into recession.