The first orders as part of the $100 billion bilateral trade target between Turkey and the U.S. have arrived, according to Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) Chairman İsmail Gülle.
“Our exporters have received significant orders, especially in the textile sector,” Gülle said Monday. “Orders have also arrived for jewelry and furniture. These are the initial purchase decisions of the $100 billion trade target. The $700 million order is likely to rise to $1 billion soon.
The development follows U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’s recent five-day visit to Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit and meetings in the U.S. last month.
Erdoğan and his American counterpart President Donald Trump agreed during their G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan in June to increase the trade volume between the two countries from $20 billion to $100 billion, a target that was revised upward from $75 billion.
The TİM chairman also said efforts are underway for the bilateral trade volume with the U.S., a target that anticipates exports worth $50 billion from each side.
Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $20.6 billion in 2018, according to official data. Turkey’s exports to the largest economy in the world were $8.3 billion, while its imports totaled $12.3 billion, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). In the January to July period this year, the sale of Turkish goods and products to the U.S. was $4.6 billion, and U.S. exports to Turkey were $6.6 billion.
For the initial order, exporters said Turkish products in the three sectors are very competitive in price and that they outperform their competitors in quality. Gülle stated that due to the large-scale purchases of U.S. companies, companies that received orders will receive support from other companies in the coming days.
He noted that cooperation is a must for the order to be delivered in time. “The U.S. companies place orders in large quantities,” he continued. “A friend of ours, a textile manufacturer, said they agreed on the products which were very advantageous to them in terms of quality and price but could not believe the quantity of the order. This will pave the way for new investments. Companies will cooperate.”
Gülle further stressed that they are planning to visit the United States and promote their products, adding they aim to invite the purchasing delegations there and bring them together with industrialists and buyers.
