ISTANBUL / OSAKA

Türkiye's Trade Minister Omer Bolat said Wednesday he will express his country’s expectations about the removal of a 10% tariff during his visit to the US next month.

Bolat is currently in Japan, along with officials from the government and private sector, to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

He said Türkiye-US relations are strong when asked by reporters about demands he would make and expectations for his US visit.

"It is natural for the US to prioritize the countries with which it has a foreign trade deficit in the measures it takes. The US has a surplus in relation to us. In that sense, we expect the 10% tariff to be removed. This will be our concrete demand," Bolat told reporters at the Osaka EXPO 2025.

"In the new period, our Far Countries Strategy for the US and the American continent is already being implemented intensively in the Trade Ministry in order for the two countries to reach the foreign trade volume target of $100 billion in the long term. The exporters' associations, Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TIM) and DEIK (Foreign Economic Relations Board) will endeavor to reach this foreign trade target with new actions together,” he said.

Pointing out that the US is Türkiye's second-largest trading partner after the EU, Bolat said his country has a balanced trade relationship with America.

Bolat, upon being reminded of the evaluations that the environment of uncertainty following the decisions by the US will leave permanent damage in world trade, emphasized that periodic volatility or turbulence means the contraction of world trade and the contraction of world national income.

"We hope that the countries that will realize this will come to the point of developing the multilateral world trade system and implementing its rules with common sense. Because when everyone closes in on themselves, when trade decreases, impoverishment will occur in the world and the world's national income will shrink. And this is not in the interest of anyone," he said. "Although there are fluctuations from time to time, I believe that countries that will realize the importance of growth and trade developing together will once again make these multilateral rules superior on the basis of the World Trade Organization."

Noting the financial crisis in 2008 and the coronavirus outbreak, Bolat said, "At that time, it was perceived as if the apocalypse had ended in the world and the world would come to an end. The world economy recorded a double-digit shrinkage at that time, especially in Western countries, but after a period of time, a recovery process was entered again. I think we will overcome these."

Bolat also noted cooperation with Japan and said Japanese business people 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. 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," he said.

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.”