Economy

Turkish business group urges free trade deal with US

Free trade agreement way to boost trade volume between Turkey, US, according to head of Turkey-US Business Council

17.01.2019 - Update : 17.01.2019
Turkish business group urges free trade deal with US Head of Turkey-US Business Council Mehmet Ali Yalcındag

By Dilara Zengin and Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

A free trade agreement between Turkey and the U.S. is the way to boost bilateral trade between the two countries, according to the head of a key business council.

"The current trade volume figure of some $20 billion is inadequate, we have to change the rules of the game," Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, chairman of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAIK), told Anadolu Agency.

Turkish business circles welcomed a Jan. 14 phone call between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump as two agreed to advance bilateral economic ties.

"[We] Also spoke about economic development between the U.S. and Turkey -- great potential to substantially expand," Trump wrote afterwards on Twitter.

Turkish-U.S. relations had a promising start in 2019 both politically and economically, Yalcindag said.

Yalcindag said he has no doubt that two leaders will take concrete steps and be very “consistent” on advancing economic relations.

He added that a free trade agreement will be on the agenda of the 37th Annual Conference on U.S.-Turkey Relations to be held by the American-Turkish Council (ATC) and TAIK on April 14-16 in Washington.


Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.