Acting US Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, and Minister of the Economy Zafer Caglayan released a Joint Statement today announcing their agreement upon several concrete steps to advance commercial relations between the US and Turkey.
The ministers applauded Turkey’s continued path toward economic prosperity and noted that such strong growth “provides a foundation for a wholly new level of commercial cooperation between our businesses, and an opportunity for our governments to collaborate more closely in the economic sphere.”
Citing a growing interest in the Turkish and American private sectors in the possibilities that could emerge from closer US-Turkish economic ties, the ministers highlighted a number of potential new initiatives in key industry sectors.
The ministers established common ground on several steps to enhance the US-Turkish bilateral economic and commercial relationship, including:
· Strengthening the FSECC’s work in between the annual meetings at a ministerial level by establishing high level coordinators on each side;
· Implementing new ways to assist our Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMEs) to participate in foreign trade;
· Organization of a symposium with the participation of prominent U.S. and Turkish companies from the construction and engineering sectors to promote cooperation on specific infrastructure opportunities in Turkey, the United States and third countries;
· Delivery of a Near Zero Zone technical training program on reducing energy use in Turkey’s 264 industrial zones, and a Smart Grid Workshop focused on ways to foster U.S. and Turkish private sector cooperation in building a smart grid in Turkey;
· Organization of an Ease of Doing Business Symposium in partnership with the World Bank
· And organization of a U.S. Defense and Aerospace Trade Mission to Turkey in December 2012.
Click here to read the full Press Release by the Commerce Department.