Turkey's economic, trade ties to improve when Trump takes office: Association

Turkey's bilateral economic and trade relations with the United States will fare better than they did over the past four or five years when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in early 2017, according to the head of the Turkish-American Business Association-U.S. Chamber of Commerce (TABA-AmCham). 

"I am optimistic about the bilateral ties between Turkey and the U.S. during the Trump administration, as many people are. There has been an obvious slowdown in U.S. actions abroad for a while. This will end soon ... Trump knows the Turkish economy as a foreign investor in Turkey," TABA-AmCham President Bora Gürçay told the Hürriyet Daily News. 

"Besides, Trump's views about how the U.S.' policy on Iraq and Syria are not very different than Turkey's view, as Trump wants to share the burden of foreign issues with U.S. allies, rather than treating the U.S. as the biggest watchman … His views about the future of the planned trans-continental trade agreements also parallel Turkey's views," Gürçay said.

"In the light of these factors, I believe that ties between the two countries will likely be better in the next period than they were in the last couple of years," he noted. 

Gürçay noted that the bilateral trade volume was at around $19 billion, which is very low when the real potential is considered. 

"Trump is not very keen on multinational trade deals. In this vein, the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) and similar deals will be kept on the shelf during his term. Turkey should use this term to turn into an advantage. There are now 10,000 tariffed goods which are the subject of Turkish and American trade, and some 3,000 of them are customs-free, but only 700 or 750 of them are traded efficiently. We...