The Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) chairman Namık Ekinci has stated that Turkish steel companies’ steel exports to the US will continue even if the US imposes 25 percent duty on steel imports from all countries including Turkey. He said that the Turkish steel industry favors fair trade under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and emphasized that unjust protective measures impact world trade negatively.
Mr. Ekinci stated that the US will be the country most affected by this decision. Following the US Commerce Secretary's announcement on February 16 of the report on Section 232 recommending one of three tax options, prices of all steel products in the US domestic market have increased. Stating that this move by Trump means the transfer of profits from the US community to the inefficient US steel industry, Mr. Ekinci added that customers in sectors in the US such as automotive, domestic appliances, machinery manufacturing, construction and so on, which use steel as raw material, will incur great losses due to the increases in prices.
The CIB chairman concluded by saying that in this view the 25 percent import duty will not have too much of an impact on Turkey’s exports to the US for now.