Türkiye expects US to lift 10 percent tariffs: Trade minister
ISTANBUL
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat has said he will express Türkiye’s expectations about the removal of a 10 percent tariff during his visit to the United States next month.
Bolat traveled to Japan to Japan this week, along with officials from the government and private sector, to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
He said Türkiye-U.S. relations are strong when asked by reporters about demands he would make and expectations for his U.S. visit.
"It is natural for the U.S. to prioritize the countries with which it has a foreign trade deficit in the measures it takes. The U.S. has a surplus in relation to us. In that sense, we expect the 10 percemt tariff to be removed. This will be our concrete demand," Bolat told reporters at the Osaka EXPO 2025.
In the new period, the Far Countries Strategy for the U.S. and the American continent is already being implemented intensively in order for the two countries to reach the foreign trade volume target of $100 billion in the long term, Bolat noted.
The Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TİM) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) will endeavor to reach this foreign trade target with new actions together, he said.
Pointing out that the U.S. is Türkiye's second-largest trading partner after the EU, Bolat said Türkiye has a balanced trade relationship with America.
Bolat also noted cooperation with Japan and said Japanese businesspeople are willing to cooperate with Turkish contracting companies, especially in the reconstruction process of Ukraine and some important infrastructure and energy projects in Africa and Asia.
He said Japan's engineering capability and financial power, combined with the production capability and quality production of Turkish contracting companies, have resulted in many important projects.
"There may be new successful collaborations like this in the reconstruction of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Ukraine and of course Syria, which are currently the favorite countries of the world contracting sector,” he said.
Just a week and 10 days ago, consortium cooperation agreements were signed between Turkish contracting companies and Japanese companies for two major projects in Turkmenistan," Bolat noted.
Regarding the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations between Japan and Türkiye, he said: “Negotiations on the Türkiye-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement are ongoing. This is a technical process. Delegations are in these negotiation rounds from time to time. They put forward their demands and expectations in terms of various sectors and products, but in the meantime, of course, there have been very turbulent processes.”
