Turkey criticizes US decision to end trade preferences

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Turkish trade minister on Tuesday criticized the U.S.’s intention to end preferential tariff system for Turkey.</p> <p>In a Twitter post, Ruhsar Pekcan said the value of the U.S. imports amounted to $20.9 billion under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) scheme in the first 11 months of 2018.</p> <p>Pekcan noted that Turkey was the fifth largest supplier to the U.S. with a share of 8.2 percent in that period, with exports amounting to $1.74 billion.</p> <p>&quot;Following the monitoring process going on since last August, the U.S. government officially declared that it will terminate GSP designations for Turkey and India,&quot; she said.</p> <p>On Monday, the U.S. announced its intention to terminate preferential tariff systems for Turkey and India which are aimed at bolstering the trading prospects of developing nations.</p> <p>&quot;Unfortunately, this decision conflicts with our mutual objective of reaching a bilateral trade volume of $75 billion, that had been announced by both governments,&quot; Pekcan said. </p> <p>The Trade minister noted that the decision would also negatively affect small and medium-sized enterprises and manufacturers in the U.S.</p> <p>&quot;We still would like to pursue our target of increasing our bilateral trade with the U.S. that we see as our strategic partner, without losing any momentum,&quot; she added.</p> <p>Turkey was designated as a program beneficiary in 1975, and the trade representative's office pointed to a number of advancing economic metrics in establishing its determination.</p> <p>India was the largest beneficiary of the system, with it covering roughly $5.69 billion in imports, according to a report issued by the Congressional Research Service in January.