ANKARA - Akin Kinikli, Turkish Trade Attache in New York, who is the Chairman of Turkey-U.S. Trade and Industry Chamber said on Friday that the satisfying relations between Turkey and the U.S. in military and political fields were not seen in the commercial field.
''We want improvement of commercial relations, too,'' said Kinikli in the conference on ''Turkey-U.S. Commercial Relations and Current Problems.''
Noting that there were certain problems between the two countries which came to agenda within the scope of the investment and framework agreement, Kinikli said that they wanted further development of the general preferences system regarding the exports made to the U.S. without customs.
Kinikli stressed that another problem in trade with the U.S. was the quota the U.S. put for Turkey in textile and ready-to-wear sector, recalling that the U.S. implemented that quota to 48 countries in 1000 categories.
Kinikli said that efforts were underway to set up the qualified industry zones in Turkey, adding that this was a long process.
Organizing the investments between the two countries was also important in development of commercial relations between them, said Kinikli, adding that ''we must attract the U.S. firms and capital to Turkey by making a different regulation. A study will be made about this issue. The flow of American capital to Turkey is a very good reference for the world.''
Kinikli said that Turkey had trade surplus to the United States for the first time this year and noted that there was about 7 billion U.S. dollars of trade volume between Turkey and the United States.
Stating that this figure was a commercial relation which stemmed from 3.5 billion U.S. dollars of export and 3 billion U.S. dollars of import, Kinikli said that Turkey exported textile products, knitted clothing, steel-iron products to the United States and it imported plane and helicopter parts from the United States.
Kinikli said that Turkey was ranked the 43rd in import and 33rd in export of the United States and noted that the United States was ranked the third in export and fourth in import of Turkey.
Stating that he believed that Turkey would make necessary contribution in re-building process of Iraq, he said that they, as the chamber, were holding necessary contacts on the issue.
Kinikli said that he believed that Turkey would provide every kind of products in better quality and better price than products of other countries and western companies to Iraq due to Turkey's production category, capacity, level of quality and geographical closeness to this country and added that he was very optimistic about Iraq issue in the near future due to some developments.
(ÖS-EÖ-AÖ) 16.05.2003