Great Britain and Turkey will cooperate in metallurgy

The UK is about to sign a trade agreement with Turkey aimed at ensuring duty-free flow of goods and protecting vital supply chains between the UK and Turkey in the automotive, manufacturing and steel industries, sources close to the UK's Department of International Trade said.

According to sources in the UK government, the agreement will be "significant" for both countries and will provide preferential tariffs for 7,600 UK businesses that exported goods to Turkey in 2019.

“The deal, which we expect to sign this week, consolidates duty-free trade agreements and will help support our trade relationship, which totaled £ 18.6 billion last year,” said Liz Truss, UK Secretary of International Trade. “This will provide certainty for thousands of jobs across the UK in the manufacturing, automotive and steel industries. We now look forward to working with Turkey on an ambitious UK-Turkey custom trade agreement in the near future as we strive to open up new global markets. ”

Sources in Turkish metallurgy said they hope the agreement will correct the deficit in steel trade between Turkey and the UK. The question arises what position the UK will now take on the European Union's temporary anti-dumping duties to be introduced next month on EU imports of hot rolled coil from Turkey, given that the UK introduced its own system of guarantees on steel imports based on the methodology on September 30 systems of the EU, before the end of the transition period for leaving the EU on 31 December.

DIT said the new deal between the UK and Turkey is the fifth largest deal it has closed, after deals with Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Norway.

The signing of the agreement requires European Union approval from Turkey, which is expected to be a formality, UK sources added. This will be the first new trade agreement signed by the UK since it reached a trade agreement with the EU on December 24, just days before the end of the transition period for Brexit.

As the Turkish Foreign Ministry reported on December 25, preparations for signing a free trade agreement between the UK and Turkey are at the final stage.

Turkey seeks to fix steel trade deficit
Veysel Yayan, secretary general of the Turkish Steel Association, said on December 28 that the association “hopes that the trade deal will correct the imbalance in steel trade between the two countries,