Turkey expects Donald Trump’s White House will lower tariffs on its steel and textile exports, the trade minister said on Thursday, as the lira and Turkish assets continued to rally on prospects of new US trade and foreign policies, Reuters reported.
“We expect that … customs duties will be reduced in our foreign trade, especially in steel and textile products,” Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on broadcaster A Haber, adding that Turkey’s defense and financial sectors could also benefit.
Bolat did not elaborate. Trump has promised to levy a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods, to restrict migration and to quickly end wars taking place to Turkey’s north and south, in Ukraine and the Palestinian territory of Gaza, respectively.
Trump’s sweeping US presidential victory on Wednesday helped spark a rally of as much as 0.4 percent in Turkey’s lira , to 34.2 to the dollar, its strongest level since mid-October.
İstanbul’s benchmark stock index jumped nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, marking its best day since May.
Investors and bankers said any renewed US push for peace could underpin Ankara’s 18-month old economic turnaround program, led by Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, which relies in part on foreign inflows to reverse years of soaring inflation.
Bolat said he expected the Trump administration, to begin in January, would benefit Turkey’s defense industry needs, despite past US sanctions that were leveled under Trump’s first term over Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defenses.
He also said he expected fallout on banks to ease from Washington’s current Russia-related embargoes over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Trump’s promised trade and immigration policies could also leave Turkey relatively unscathed among large emerging market (EM) economies such as Brazil, Mexico and China, bankers said.
“The Turkey trade is a relative outperformer within global EMs with the Trump victory,” said Blaise Antin, head of EM sovereign research at asset manager TCW in Los Angeles.