Turkey must drop barriers to sign trade deal with USA
ISTANBUL – The head of a top US business group said yesterday he was in favor of discussing a free trade agreement with Turkey but warned the EU candidate it must remove obstructions to foreign investment. Turkey, one of Washington’s key allies within NATO, has long pressed the United States of America to lift trade barriers as it works to recover from its worst economic recession since 1945. «Some related discussion, as to whether we have a free trade agreement or a trade commitment or whatever we call it, is a good idea,» Thomas Donohue, head of the US Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters after an Istanbul meeting with Turkish bosses. «(It’s) not so much what is finally signed, it’s about a process of encouraging people to celebrate our achievements and talk about what we can do going forward.» Turkey and the USA have enjoyed a decades-long strategic relationship but NATO-member Turkey, currently working to emerge from a financial crisis last year with the help of $31 billion in IMF loans, is pushing Washington to do more. Donohue said steps to a free trade agreement with the USA may also improve Turkey’s chances of joining the European Union. «I also think it’s in Turkey’s interests to do that because it will heighten the EU’s interest in their membership and they might be able to make a better deal,» he said. A visit to Washington by Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit earlier this year brought little in terms of concrete agreements, despite Turkish expectations the USA might lift quotas on Turkish goods, including textiles. Donohue traveled to Turkey’s capital Ankara later in the day and was due to meet with Ecevit today, where he will, no doubt, press the Turkish PM to do more to lift bureaucratic red tape and to help US firms in Turkey’s energy sector. «You have to remove obstructions, make contracts and live with them. If you do that, people will bring their money, if you don’t, they won’t,» Donohue said. Turkey has yet to give the go-ahead to several power station projects involving US firms, which have waited years and spent millions of dollars awaiting the implementation of agreements secured under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. «The energy issue is very simple – if you sign a contract you have to meet it. Secondly, if you want to be able to develop energy here and build pipelines and sell gas, you need to have capital, you can’t do that without capital,» he said. Analysts say protectionism, corruption and obstructive bureaucratic procedures have limited foreign investment in Turkey, which totaled less than $1 billion in the year 2000. Turkey has pledged to ease barriers to investment and tackle widespread graft under its IMF-backed economic program. Washington was credited with being a key advocate of IMF loans to help Turkey recover from last year’s crisis. Donohue and Turkish business leaders announced an agreement to set up an Internet-based business partnership scheme to bring together thousands of small and medium-sized firms from the two countries.
