US firms to access Europe via Turkey
Posted by meb at April 15th, 2008
The Turkish American Business Association (TABA/AmCham) began a conference yesterday in İstanbul in cooperation with the US Department of Commerce titled “Tradewinds Europe.”
James Fluker, senior commercial officer at the US Embassy in Ankara, said the event was organized in İstanbul because of Turkey’s positive economic performance in the last six years. Fluker said expectations for the participation of around 35-40 US firms were exceeded as 65 firms, mostly small and medium-sized, registered for the conference; at least 90 percent of these expressed willingness to do business with Turkey. There are currently 250 US firms operating in Turkey, while thousands of others do business through local Turkish dealers, Fluker also said. TABA/AmCham Chairman Uğur Terzioğlu said that among the delegation there were firms that had not yet done any business with Europe at all. As part of the conference bilateral meetings would be held on April 16 and these US firms would enter European markets via Turkey, as there are no customs obligations on goods produced and exported from Turkey to Europe within the framework of customs union agreements, Terzioğlu said. Terzioğlu also commented on the closure case filed against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). He said he believed democracy had developed well in Turkey. He noted that closing a party never solves the problem, but rather harms the reputation of the country in the international arena.
source: Today’s Zaman
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