By Hakan Tasci
Today’s Zaman - A year after the announcement of the US-Turkey Business Council, its members have finally been selected. The American members were announced last October by US Undersecretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez, and the Turkish members were named by Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan last week. So, it is time to say a few words about this council, the selection process and what to expect from it.
To better coordinate various bilateral economic frameworks between the US and Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Barack Obama introduced a new initiative led by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Caglayan and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk in December 2009. This cabinet level committee will meet once a year to discuss and coordinate the economic partnership between the two countries. The same agreement started a new US-Turkey Business Council, with Sanchez and Undersecretary of Foreign Trade Ahmet Yakici as co-chairs and 10-12 businesspeople from key sectors representing their countries. This committee will also meet once a year and draft proposals and suggestions for the cabinet level meeting
This announcement last year sparked much criticism from various circles in Turkey and the US that feel this commission is replacing their missions and objectives, which I don’t think is the case. An advisory committee that meets once a year for three hours will not solve any problems concerning the US-Turkey economic partnership and cannot compete with any organization in existence today. This committee will deal with business problems between Turkey and the US and add those items to the agenda of the cabinet level meeting and hope that a solution is found to those problems. It does not have any secretariat or any resources to develop inspirational and innovative ideas to improve trade and enhance investment. Eventually, every organization and company will do what similar organizations were doing before, and the interested parties will judge who contributes to this relationship and who only talks.
I would like to say a few words about members selected for this council from both sides. On the US side we have Boeing, Citibank, Nike, UPS, Sikorsky, Merck, Elle in Le Kazan and Dymo/Mimio. Defense, aviation, logistics, finance, apparel and technology are all represented on the council. These companies have strong business interests in the Turkish market. We have both multinationals and small businesses on this list. I wish I could see prime contractors, energy company representatives, education, agribusiness and automotive sector representatives. But the response is ready. They announced the formation of the council, collected applications from companies willing to take part in it and selected members from among the applicant corporations according to the strength of their applications. It is always better to encourage companies and individuals to apply and use different forms of advertising to get the attention of these companies. These sector representatives may pave the way for policy makers to support the initiatives they suggest.
On the Turkish side, the selection was more carefully done. We have two Koc Holding affiliates (in the fields of home appliances and automotives) and two Sabanci Holding affiliates (in the fields of energy and retail food) as well as Sarkuysan, GAP, TusaÅŸ, Naksan, Nobel, Yuksel Construction and DataTeknik. The first thing I observe about this list is that traditional sectors in which Turkey has an advantage are missing. The furniture industry is missing, and machinery and textile representatives could have been selected more carefully. Anatolian companies are underrepresented, whereas traditional actors have a rather strong representation.
The Turkish government follows a different method and has tried to balance the group to give some sort of representation to everyone. This may be a good practice, but it sometimes results in debates among business associations and also puts a lot of pressure on policy makers.
This council will have its first meeting some time in March. This first meeting will give us an idea of what can be expected from it. I wish everyone success in the meeting and hope that it will contribute to Turkish-American relations in a positive way.