Turkey looks to boost trade ties with US and China

Turkey is looking to develop trade ties with United States and China – the world’s biggest and second-biggest economies – Turkish Development minister Cevdet Yilmaz has said.

During a meeting with Turkish businessmen in the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles, US,on Friday, Yilmaz said that Turkey had dramatically increased trade ties with Africa and Turkic Republics but had not done the same with the United States and China.

“We are looking for the ways how to develop the trade ties with these two countries”, Yilmaz told businessmen as he sought their support.

The White House said in a report in 2013 that “in the last four years, US-Turkish … trade reached record levels of nearly $20 billion in 2011, with US FDI in Turkey of over $5 billion and Turkish FDI in the United States of nearly $1 billion”.

Meanwhile, China was Turkey’s third-largest import partner in 2012, according to the Turkish Ministry of Economy, which said the total trade volume between the two was $24.1 billion in 2012, although Turkey had a trade deficit of $18.5 billion.

Turkish Development Minister Yilmaz also said that Turkey had successfully overcome the global economic crisis.

“In the past, Turkey experienced an economic crisis when there was not one in the wider world. Now there is a global crisis, but we are not experiencing it,” Yilmaz said.

The minister said he hoped that political stability in Turkey would continue after the 2015 parliamentary elections.

“We will have a four-year term without elections, so 2015 offers a very suitable environment for reforms,” Yilmaz said, adding that Turkish officials were preparing plans for such changes.