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Türkiye on Monday announced it has scrapped the retaliatory tariffs it imposed in 2018 on a range of U.S. imports, including passenger cars and fruit, in a sign of warming bilateral ties just days before President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meets his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.
Erdoğan is due to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week ahead of a meeting at the White House on Thursday with Trump, who said he expected trade and military deals to be sealed during the visit.
The cancellation of the tariffs, which, when they were introduced, had covered products including passenger cars, fruit, rice, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, solid fuels and chemical products, was announced in Türkiye’s Official Gazette.
Past retaliatory measures
Since returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump has employed sweeping tariffs in a bid to reshape global trade in Washington’s favor, targeting not only traditional rivals but also long-standing allies.
The United States set the tariff rate on Turkish imports at 15% in August. Ankara has not retaliated against the move.
Monday’s cancellations apply to levies imposed in 2018 in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium imports enacted during Trump’s first term in office.
Erdoğan last visited Trump at the White House in 2019, and the two leaders have repeatedly hailed a “very good relationship.”
They shared a close personal bond during Trump’s first term, but it was also a period of strained bilateral relations due to disputes over Washington’s ties with the terrorist group YPG in Syria and Ankara’s dealings with Moscow.
Frustrated over the embargoes and failure by the West to provide it with an air defense system, Türkiye went on to purchase the S-400 missile system from Russia in 2019. That saw it being suspended from the multinational F-35 fighter jets program by the U.S., which also canceled a planned sale of the warplanes to Türkiye.
Washington claimed the Russian system would endanger the fighter jets. Ankara has repeatedly said there is no conflict between the two and proposed a commission to study the issue.
Türkiye subsequently agreed on a deal to purchase F-16 jets. The sides have also been in contact over F-35 jets.
On Friday, Trump said the discussions with Erdoğan will cover a “large scale” purchase of Boeing aircraft, a new F-16 deal and the continuation of F-35 talks, which he said are expected to conclude positively.
Meanwhile, Erdoğan said that the two leaders would discuss trade, investment and defense cooperation, stressing that he believes the talks will strengthen bilateral ties and contribute to ending wars and conflicts in the region.
$100 billion trade volume target
Türkiye’s Trade Ministry said the tariffs imposed in 2018 were subsequently updated based on the actions taken by the parties, but they remained in effect to a certain extent, without providing figures on the current scale of the levies.
“The additional financial obligations imposed on imports of certain U.S.-origin products have been terminated,” the ministry said, citing progress in negotiations with the United States.
It said that Türkiye will continue to work toward meeting an existing goal of $100 billion in annual two-way trade with the United States. Trade volumes between the two countries stood at roughly $30 billion last year.
“We will continue to develop policies to increase trade relations for the benefit of both parties, diversify them by taking into account competitive conditions, and develop new areas of cooperation,” it added.
Separately, Türkiye said on Monday it had imposed an additional 25% to 30% customs duty on passenger car imports, excluding those from the European Union and countries with which Türkiye has free trade agreements.
