ANKARA, Turkey, May 18 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey, on Friday, welcomed Washington’s decision to halve tariffs on steel imports, and urged the United States to remove all trade obstacles.
“Elimination of the additional 25-percent tariffs on Turkish steel imports is a positive step. However, we expect the eradication of all obstacles to bilateral trade,” Turkey’s Trade Minister, Ruhsar Pekcan, tweeted.
Pekcan’s statements came after U.S. President, Donald Trump’s decision to cut tariffs on Turkish steel imports from 50 percent to 25 percent.
The U.S. doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium imports in Aug, 2018, amid a diplomatic spat over the detention of a U.S. pastor.
Meanwhile, White House announced the end of Turkey’s eligibility for the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, a policy of preferential trade treatment for its participant countries. The decision took effect on Friday.
Pekcan criticised, the U.S. move contradicted the countries’ mutual goal of 75 billion dollars in annual bilateral trade, saying it will also hit U.S. companies.
The GSP programme allows duty-free exports to thousands of industrial products to the U.S. Turkey has been a part of GSP since 1975.
In March, the U.S. said, Turkey would no longer benefit from the scheme, since the country was “sufficiently economically developed.”– NNN-ANADOLU
