Turkish officials, including Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, remarked on Sunday and Monday the ten-percent tariff President Donald Trump imposed on goods originating in their country was “relatively beneficial” and Turkish markets would survive any volatility in the long term.
President Trump announced the imposition of ten-percent tariffs on every country that trades with America – and tariffs as high as 50 percent on countries with significant trade surpluses with America – on Wednesday, which he branded “Liberation Day.” The countries paying a ten-percent rate are those with which the Trump administration deemed there not to be a meaningful trade imbalance.
The nation imposed the highest tariff, Lesotho, will now pay a 50-percent tariff to sell clothing and diamonds in U.S. markets; other countries facing the highest tariff rates include Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Madagascar, among others. The new tariffs were calculated, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), by dividing a given country’s trade surplus with America by its total exports to the country, then halving that number.
Turkey and America traded $32.0 billion worth of goods in 2024, according to the USTR. America’s trade deficit with the country skyrocketed over 60 percent from 2023 to 2024. Turkeys top exports to America are rugs, cement, and car parts and buys America gas, iron, and aircraft. While Turkey was imposed the lowest ten-percent tariff threshold, the White House identified the country as imposing offensive duties on American apples – over 60 percent – and rice in the husk, at 31 percent.
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Outside of its business with America, Turkey has greatly expanded exports in high-technology sectors. Its most popular armed drone manufacturer, the Baykar company, announced in December that it controls 60 percent of the market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – and Turkey as a whole controls 65 percent. Baykar’s Bayraktar drone has become a popular item due to its affordable pricing and ease of use, becoming a major factor in the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh by the government of Azerbaijan and later being used against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine has become a major target for Turkish commerce generally, as well. The head of the Turkish-Ukrainian Business Association (TUID), Burak Pehlivan, said in March that Turkish companies opened more new businesses in Ukraine than any other country, apparently seeking to position themselves to profit from the rebuilding of the country following the conclusion of the ongoing Russian invasion.
Regarding the economic ties to America, Vice President Yılmaz downplayed any concerns about the impact to the Turkish economy of the tariffs in remarks on Sunday.
“Initially, a 10 percent tariff was announced on Türkiye. For now, this works to our advantage,” Yılmaz said in an interview, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. “Rising tariffs will lure countries, which sell goods to the U.S., to enter other markets aggressively, which we need to be cautious about. On the other hand, commodity prices have fallen, so we can also see a positive impact here.”
Yılmaz confirmed that the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning to send a delegation to Washington to negotiate a better bilateral trade deal.
“Our President [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] and the economic management sent out certain messages, and the markets calmed down,” Yılmaz explained. “Our reserves are sufficient … The Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves are solid.”
The vice president insisted that “short-term” effects on the Turkish economy existed but “should not be exaggerated” and that volatility “has both costs and benefits.”
On Monday, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek echoed the vice president’s insistence that Turkey came out among the most unscathed countries from Trump’s “Liberation Day.”
“Looking at the last three to four days amid the protectionist measures announced by the United States, many countries have experienced a greater rise in their CDS [credit default swap] than we have,” Şimşek observed. “The movement in CDS indicates that we have performed significantly better compared to our peer countries. The recent turbulence in the economy is not permanent.”
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“There is a balancing in growth, with domestic demand contributing 8 percent,” he continued. “Rapid growth brings both a current account deficit and inflation, which is why one of our key objectives is to make growth more sustainable and balanced.”
“GDP growth in Türkiye is mainly driven by domestic demand, not by exports. This means that the impact of the protectionist measures on the economy will be more limited [for Türkiye] compared to other countries,” Şimşek added.
The finance minister also predicted a fall in national inflation rates, which have hurt President Erdogan’s popularity throughout the past decade, and called inflation the country’s “priority.” Turkish inflation hit a two-year low of 42.5 percent in March.
In addition to a trade delegation expected in the near future, Erdogan himself is also expected to travel to Washington and meet with Trump in person in the near future. Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday, however, that no date currently exists for that visit, as the two countries are still working out logistics.
“However, in the meantime, both my foreign minister (Hakan Fidan) and trade minister (Omer Bolat) may have meetings or travel plans related to the US,” the strongman said. “These visits could include discussions on the recently raised issue of tax regulations.”
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