Türkiye's Foreign Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen told a joint Turkish-Iranian economic committee meeting in Ankara on 20 February 2007 that bilateral trade rose 52 percent in 2006 to $6.7 billion, yet Türkiye's exports to Iran totaled only $1.1 billion of that figure.
Tuzmen attributed the lopsided balance to Iranian tariffs on industrial goods ranging from 40 to 100 percent, compared with an average Turkish tariff of under four percent. He called on Tehran to bring those rates down to four percent, warning the current situation was unsustainable.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who co-chaired the meeting, expressed commitment to stronger economic ties and expressed hope that two-way trade could reach $10 billion in 2007. The bulk of Iranian sales to Türkiye consists of oil and natural gas delivered by pipeline.
Mottaki's visit also included scheduled talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, and a planned meeting with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in Istanbul the following day. Relations between the two neighbors have warmed considerably in recent years following a period of friction over Kurdish separatism and Islamist concerns.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in February 2007, in its own words.