US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Wednesday, December 5 for Turkey to re-structure its economy in order to attract investment and pledged to support the removal of US trade barriers to Turkish textile exports.
"A lot is required of Turkey to re-structure and reform economic systems so they can draw more investment into the country," Powell told a press conference here after meeting Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem.
Powell recalled that the United States had supported the release by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund of $19 billion (21.3 billion euros) in credits to help Turkey cope with recession and the sharp depreciation of its currency against the dollar.
Powell, who also met Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet here, said discussions in addition focused on "textile quotas and similar barriers to trade." He said: "I will be taking a strong message to my colleague in the United States (Commerce Secretary Donald Evans) ... to see what we can do to remove these barriers." Turkey has repeatedly appealed to the United States to lift the quotas it has imposed on textile imports.
"Our economic relations have to move to a higher stage," Cem said. "Our economic relations have to be upgraded and we believe our trade relations should not have the restricted character that it has.” "Turkey and the United States should freely export to each other ... and should alleviate the existing restrictions, which are unfortunately serious limitations to Turkey's economic possibilities". — (AFP, Ankara)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
