The landmark Turkey-U.K. free trade agreement set to be signed on Dec. 29 will usher a new era in bilateral economic and trade ties starting Jan. 1, Turkey’s trade minister said on Dec. 28.
“This new era in our relations will be mutually beneficial for both Turkey and the U.K.,” Ruhsar Pekcan tweeted.
The pact will form a new basis and framework for bilateral relations, she said.
The free trade agreement, “which aims at furthering our trade volume, represents a critical milestone on the way to deepen our relations on the win-win basis,” Pekcan said.
The pact with the U.K., ‘one of Turkey’s most important trade partners’ – coming days before Brexit’s transitional period ends- will be Turkey’s “most important trade deal” since its 1995 Customs Union with the EU, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also said in the capital Ankara on Dec. 28 after a cabinet meeting.
“A new era begins starting in 2021, one in which both Turkey and the U.K. will win,” he said.
“Once again, I want to emphasize that Turkey will achieve its goals thanks to its economic system established by production, employment, and exports,” Erdoğan said, underlining that as of Dec. 25, Turkey’s annual exports hit $166 billion, shooting past the country’s targets for all of 2020.
“We are closing our current account deficit with high value-added investments and reducing our need for external financing,” he said.
Hurriyet Daily News