Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB and DEİK President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Turkey was not familiar with the USA market and only tried to conduct commerce in a few states.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Turkey’s exports to the USA in the beginning of the 2000’s was around 11.2 of its total exports at 3.13 billion dollars, in 2010 it got stuck at 3.7 billion dollars and 3%. Hisarcıklıoğlu went on;
“According to the current USA customs laws, 65.8% of the exports to the USA are not subject to customs tax. This means 1.244 trillion dollars. The number of customs tax-free Turkey-originated goods in 2010 was 11,924. How much goods can we sell to the USA without tax? How much of this potential are we using? Only 2,309 products were able to be exported without being subject to the customs tax. This means 2.5 billion dollars.

What is the total value of the exports from China to the USA? In 2010, China exported 290 billion dollars worth of goods to the USA without customs tax. In 2010 types of goods exported to the USA were; China 13,181; Germany 10,159 and South Korea 7,470. Turkey only sold 4004 types of goods.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that entering the USA market was a matter of development for Turkey, “I believe we can achieve this by selling higher tech products. For this, we need to bring Turkish and American entrepreneurs together and facilitate joint production.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu defined the area which must be developed between Turkey and the USA as the “relations of the entrepreneurs”.

- USA Foreign Affairs Undersecretary in charge of Economy, Energy and Agriculture Robert Hormats

In his speech the USA Foreign Affairs Undersecretary in charge of Economy, Energy and Agriculture Robert Hormats stated that a growth lead by a strong private sector would serve the joint strategic interests of Turkey and the USA in the Middle East and North Africa.

Hormats stated that the USA’s relations with Turkey in economy and security were important, “The Turkey-USA partnership is critical. The USA and Turkey could cooperate in many instances to reach prosperity.”
Hormats emphasized the importance of Turkey’s role and leadership in North Africa and the Middle East.

Hormats stated that the companies of the two countries’ companies could cooperate to take advantage of the economic opportunities in North Africa and the Middle East. Hormats emphasized that entrepreneurship is one of the most important aspects to consider when developing cooperation, saying that the two countries could construct successful entrepreneur ecosystems and share these with the world.
Relating work to construct entrepreneur ecosystems in North Africa and the Middle East, Hormats said, “Stability in the region is very important for the USA and Turkey, work in these fields in beneficial to both countries.”
Hormats stated that the development of Turkey’s neighbors would in turn help Turkey to advance its development.

Hormats, on the matter of the USA’s global entrepreneurship program, “Turkey’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is very advanced. Both countries can work together in the region. USA has angel investors in Egypt. We invite those in Turkey to join us. The untapped resource of North Africa and the Middle East is the natural ability of its people. We want to do this, not only as a USA enterprise but in cooperation with Turkey.
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