TRABZON - State Minister Kursat Tuzmen said on Thursday that Turkey encountered with a very unfair competition in Macedonian market, adding that they wanted elimination of this injustice.
Tuzmen, who arrived in Trabzon to attend the Ninth International Trade Fair, evaluated Turkish-Macedonian Business Council meeting.
Noting that they had very positive meetings with Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and Economy Minister, Tuzmen said that he wanted Crvenkovski to eliminate unfair competition on commercial field between two countries.
Recalling that Free Trade Agreement which was signed between Turkey and Macedonia in 1999 included some concessions, Tuzmen said, ''the concessions which Turkey made started to function against it when Macedonia signed Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU) in 2001. Turkey encountered with a very unfair competition in Macedonian market. This caused difficulty for our businessmen in Macedonia and prevented them to make investments. We wanted this injustice to be eliminated during our meetings. Crvenkovski and economy minister gave us serious support in this issue. We have signed a protocol. We will make arrangements for benefit of both countries with joint activities we will make in coming days.''
Tuzmen said that 40 Turkish firms were active in Macedonia and total investments of those firms in Macedonia was nearly 20 million dollars. He added that this figure was very low and they were expecting investments to increase rapidly in the new period.
Tuzmen said that they would convey Turkey's experiences about free zones to Macedonia and they would make important development on this issue.
(GC-AÖ) 11.12.2003