BFF-46 Turkey lodges complaint against US tariffs: WTO

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TURKEY-US-WTO

Turkey lodges complaint against US tariffs: WTO

GENEVA, Aug 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Turkey has lodged a complaint against
additional US duties on steel and aluminium at World Trade Organization, the
international trade court said Monday.

US President Donald Trump earlier this month announced on Twitter that he
had doubled steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey amid a row over an American
pastor held for two years on terror charges.

“Turkey claims that the measures are inconsistent with a number of
provisions of the WTO’s Agreement on Safeguards and the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994,” said a statement on the WTO’s website.

The first stage in the process is a request for bilateral consultations to
attempt to resolve the dispute. It can take years to resolve disputes if WTO
trade judges become involved.

The two NATO members are at odds over Turkey’s detention of American
pastor Andrew Brunson.

The announcement of the tariffs on August 10 caused the Turkish lira to
crash nearly 20 percent, and prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
to claim his country was victim of a “political plot” and an “economic war”.

Turkey subsequently hiked tariffs on imports of several key US products
such as rice, hard alcohol, leaf tobacco, cosmetics and cars.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 2212 hrs