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Trade Minister Ömer Bolat on Monday announced that Syria has decided to reduce tariffs on nearly 270 products it imports from Türkiye, just days after the two countries agreed to reassess customs duties.
“As of this week, Syria has decided to reduce customs duties on 269 products that are prominent in our exports to this country, including food such as chicken eggs, flour, corn, milk and cream, some iron and steel, and hygiene products,” Bolat told an event in Ankara.
His remarks came after the Trade Ministry on Friday said the two nations had agreed to reevaluate duties on certain products and held discussions on economic and trade relations during meetings in Damascus.
Earlier this month, reports suggested Syria had increased duties by 300% to 500%, including on imports from Türkiye, which left kilometers-long truck lines piling up near border crossings between the two nations.
However, the Trade Ministry has said that the newly implemented tariff system, effective as of Jan. 11, was not exclusive to Turkish goods but applied equally across all borders and customs administrations.
“There is absolutely no situation that is being presented as a decision taken against Türkiye; it is baseless,” Bolat said.
At meetings in Damascus, officials also agreed to start negotiations to re-enact the free trade agreement (FTA) suspended in 2011, when the civil war began in Syria. The ministry said the new approach seeks to establish a broader economic partnership.
Türkiye has been the main backer of the opposition forces that ousted longtime dictator Bashar Assad last month and has since pledged to help Syria’s reconstruction and economic revival.
Following Assad’s fall, officials expressed optimism that the trade volume between Türkiye and Syria could reach $10 billion in the near future.
The volume stood at $2.3 billion in 2010, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), before the civil war broke out. Syria’s economic structure rapidly collapsed as of 2011 due to the war, which severely impacted goods exchange with Türkiye.
In 2012, the trade volume plummeted to $565 million. It increased over the years but never achieved pre-2011 levels. According to the TurkStat data, Türkiye exported goods worth around $2 billion to Syria in 2024, led by sales of wheat, iron and steel products and cement.
Bolat said on Friday he held a video conference meeting with Syrian Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Basil Abdul Hannan earlier this month and expects reciprocal visits to take place once the institutions in Syria settle in.
