Economy
Danish firms see opportunities in Türkiye to increase trade co-op
Danish companies and investors’ interest in Türkiye has grown over the years as they see more opportunities to boost trade cooperation, especially in areas such as renewable energy and the logistics sector, according to the country’s envoy in Ankara.
Ole Toft, Danish ambassador to Ankara, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that trade between Türkiye and Denmark has “definitely room to grow.”
Toft stated that Danish firms see opportunities with Turkish firms, particularly in Africa, evaluating cooperation prospects in the engineering, procurement and construction sectors.
“I could also easily see Danish and Turkish companies working together when we start rebuilding and reconstructing Ukraine after the war, hopefully when it’s over, and also when we start, hopefully, very soon, the rebuilding and reconstruction of Syria,” he noted, adding that Danish and Turkish firms cooperating in Central Asia, where the latter has a strong presence, can also contribute.
Toft emphasized that Türkiye has some of the “biggest and best construction companies in the world,” whereas Denmark does not have them any longer, but it has “big companies working all over the world in different areas, and they are interested in building in these countries.”
Toft stated that Türkiye’s other sectors, such as renewable energy, also caught the attention of Denmark due to the Turkish government’s “ambitious energy policy plan that will reform the energy mix.”
“You will move from fossil fuels and coal to a system much more based on natural gas and renewables. Denmark has big companies in the renewable sector, and they would be interested in working, investing and selling here in Türkiye,” he said.
He noted that Danish companies operating in both onshore wind and solar energy projects in Türkiye are moving toward developing offshore wind energy.
Toft added that transportation and logistics are also among the sectors in which Danish companies seek to cooperate with Türkiye due to the country’s status as a transportation hub and its importance in the Middle Corridor transport route project.
He noted that Danish large transport firms DSV, Maersk and DFDS have shown great interest in Türkiye.
“All these companies see Türkiye as a very interesting market because they can see that you are becoming a transport hub connecting Europe to the Middle East and Europe to Central Asia and eventually to China, also through a project called the Middle Corridor,” he said.
Toft stated that relations between the EU and Türkiye need to be strengthened.
“When we look at the world now with all these upheavals and globalization being questioned and more protectionism in many markets, I think the EU and Türkiye have to move closer together,” he noted.
Toft praised the Turkish defense industry for its development. “You are a leading country in the development of drones that are of such great importance now – that’s quite impressive,” he said.
He added that Türkiye is “creating peace in many countries … in Syria, the Caucasus, and Africa.”
Türkiye’s current account balance logged a net deficit of $6.8 billion (TL 299.98 billion) in January, according to the official data released by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) on Thursday.
The current account balance excluding gold and energy indicated a net deficit of $1.23 billion, the bank added.
Goods recorded a deficit of $6.98 billion while services saw a net surplus of $2.6 billion in January.
According to annualized data, the current account deficit recorded as $32.9 billion in January, while the goods deficit was at $71.2 billion, the CBRT also said.
Commenting on the data, Türkiye’s finance chief suggested the current account deficit in 2026 may exceed the government’s projections due to rising energy prices amid geopolitical tensions.
“We assess that this increase will be manageable, thanks to our strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals,” Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said in a statement on X.
The U.S. announced new probes Wednesday into what it considers unfair trade practices by dozens of countries, including the European Union and China, opening the door to penalties and potentially more levies as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to replace duties struck down by the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration is launching separate probes centered on overproduction and importing goods made with forced labor, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters.
The excess industrial capacity probe targets the European Union, China, Japan, India and others, and could inflame tensions with those trading partners.
Many of those targeted have struck tariff pacts with Washington, which Greer said are “independent” of the investigations.
He said Trump’s trade policy remains the same as it has been “for decades,” even if his tools may change.
“We need to protect American jobs, and we need to make sure we have fair trade with our trading partners,” he added. “If we need to impose tariffs to help solve this, we will.”
Others subject to the excess capacity probe initiated on Wednesday include Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Mexico.
The investigation “will focus on economies that we have evidence appear to exhibit structural excess capacity and production in various manufacturing sectors,” Greer said.
He did not specify if the eventual penalties would differ based on the country.
The second probe linked to forced labor will likely be launched “no earlier than tomorrow afternoon” and impact roughly 60 partners, he said.
“This is not about domestic conditions of particular countries,” Greer added.
“It is really about whether countries have implemented external-facing laws to prohibit the import of goods made with forced labor.”
More to come
The efforts come weeks after the high court struck down Trump’s global tariffs, saying he had exceeded his authority in tapping emergency economic powers to impose them on virtually all countries.
Trump swiftly slapped a new 10% duty on imports, to last until July 24, while officials work on more durable measures as they resurrect his trade agenda.
Greer expects other similar investigations “on a country-specific basis” to come.
He seeks to conclude the latest probes “as quickly as possible,” ideally before the temporary duties expire.
Both investigations unveiled on Wednesday are handled by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), falling under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
This is the same authority Trump tapped to impose tariffs on Chinese imports during his first presidency, and many of the resulting duties remain intact.
Trump’s sector-specific tariffs on goods like steel, aluminum and autos, however, remain unaffected by the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Greer said it is too early to say how any new penalties from the latest probes will overlap with the sectoral duties.
Asked how the new investigations could interact with deals that Trump has reached with partners like the EU and Japan, Greer maintained: “I think that we are able to take into account these agreements.”
While he did not go into detail on what future investigations could focus on, he noted that Washington has concerns on issues ranging from digital services taxes to pharmaceutical pricing.
The Trump administration’s latest move also comes ahead of an expected meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in April.
The Turkish central bank put its easing cycle on pause and left its key interest rate on hold at 37% on Thursday, taking a more cautious stance on monetary policy due to market fallout from the Iran war.
“As uncertainty heightened amid geopolitical developments, the global risk appetite deteriorated and energy prices increased,” the bank said, adding it acted to “contain the risks posed by these factors to the inflation outlook.”
The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) also left unchanged its band of overnight lending and borrowing rates at 40% and 35.5%, respectively. Last week, it responded to the volatility by taking liquidity measures that lifted overnight rates to around 40%, up 300 basis points from pre-war levels.
“The underlying trend of inflation was essentially flat in February. As uncertainty heightened amid geopolitical developments, global risk appetite deteriorated and energy prices increased. To contain the risks posed by these factors to the inflation outlook, decisions supporting tight monetary policy have been enacted alongside coordinated fiscal measures,” the bank said in a statement following its widely anticipated Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
Most polls indicated that the bank was likely to keep rates steady in light of recent developments and escalating regional conflict.
“The effects of geopolitical developments on the inflation outlook through the cost channel and economic activity are being closely monitored,” the CBRT said.
Annual inflation rose slightly to 31.5% in February, while the monthly figure cooled to 2.96%, compared to the higher-than-expected 4.84% increase in January, official data revealed earlier this month.
Before the expanding regional conflict began shifting expectations, the central bank had been expected to continue a rate-cutting cycle that began in late 2024. A year ago, the bank temporarily reversed course and hiked rates, though it returned to rate cuts by mid-2025.
Since the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran nearly two weeks ago, exports from major Gulf oil producers have largely halted, causing a sharp rise in energy prices and stoking inflation concerns worldwide.
The lira was flat at 44.114 against the U.S. dollar after the announcement.
The bank, meanwhile, also reiterated that a tight stance, which will be maintained until price stability is achieved, will strengthen the disinflation process through demand, exchange rate, and expectation channels.”
“The committee will determine the policy rate by taking into account realized and expected inflation and its underlying trend in a way to ensure the tightness required by the projected disinflation path in line with the interim targets,” it added. It also again emphasized that monetary policy decisions are made prudently on a meeting-by-meeting basis with a focus on the inflation outlook.
“In case of a significant and persistent deterioration in the inflation outlook, which can also be driven by the recent developments, the monetary policy stance will be tightened,” it suggested.
“In case of unanticipated developments in credit and deposit markets, the monetary transmission mechanism will be supported via additional macroprudential measures. Liquidity conditions will continue to be closely monitored, and liquidity management tools will continue to be used effectively.”
With production across Gulf countries halted and gas prices climbing, the war in Iran and the wider Middle East is disrupting fertilizer supplies and raising concerns over global food security.
A third of fertilizer shipped by sea comes from the region and cannot make it to the global market as Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
That has sent global fertilizer prices soaring, with the U.N. expressing concern in particular about the impact on developing countries.
Gulf as key manufacturer
Natural gas is a key feedstock to make artificial fertilizers, and with its ample gas supplies, the Gulf region has become a key manufacturer.
The region produces nearly half of the sulphur sold worldwide and a third of urea, “the most widely traded fertilizer of all,” said Sarah Marlow, global editor for fertilizers at Argus Media.
It also produces a quarter of globally traded ammonia, another feedstock for fertilizer production, she said.
Major food-producing nations like the U.S. and Australia source much of their urea and phosphate from the Gulf nations.
Brazil, the world’s leading soybean producer, imports most of its urea from Qatar and Iran, which also exports to Türkiye and Mexico.
India relies upon Saudi phosphate.
Asia, in particularly dependent on the Gulf: it imports 64% of its ammonia and more than 50% of its sulphur and phosphates from the region, according to 2024 figures from Kpler.
But since the start of the conflict, which has seen Iran launch retaliatory strikes against its Gulf neighbors following U.S. and Israeli strikes, production has had to be shut down at fertilizer production facilities, particularly in Qatar.
And the Strait of Hormuz remains largely unnavigable.
A Chinese vessel loaded with sulphur was able to leave on March 7, but around 20 other ships were still waiting as of the middle of the week, according to Kpler, which tracks commodity flows.
Global repercussions
While Europe appears at first blush to be less exposed, sourcing just 11% of its urea from the region, it will likely be impacted indirectly.
Morocco is a big supplier of phosphorus-based fertilizers to Europe, but is dependent on the Gulf for sulphur used in their manufacturing.
The EU also imports 26% of its urea from Egypt, but the country is confronted by a halt of natural gas supplies from Israel by pipeline, pointed out Argus Media consultant Arthur Portier.
“Egyptian urea has gone from $500 per ton at the start of the war to more than $650. There is a direct impact on the price of fertilizer,” for European farmers, he said.
Other countries that source their gas from the Middle East to produce fertilizers, such as India, have had to ration supplies to their factories.
Bangladesh has temporarily shut down five out of six of them.
The U.N. expressed concern this week about access to fertilizers in some of the poorest countries.
Crop production at risk
Artificial fertilizers provide nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium necessary for crop growth.
For nitrogen-based fertilizers such as urea, ammonium nitrate and potassium, “global demand never ceases to increase, driven by Asia,” said Sylvain Pellerin at INREA, a French agricultural research institute.
INREA models that without these three key fertilizer inputs, global crop production would fall by a third.
But nitrogen fertilizers require natural gas for their chemical synthesis, and a lot of energy.
As for sulfur, it is a co-product of the oil and gas industry.
“Where there is gas, you will find urea and ammonia,” said the Argus’s Marlow.
Production of phosphorus-based fertilizers starts with phosphate rock, of which Saudi Arabia supplies 20% of the world’s total, but currently it is unable to ship it.
Uncertain outlook
In addition to the uncertainty about how long the war will last, the other question is the amount of damage that fertilizer production facilities will suffer from the fighting.
Repairs and reconstruction of facilities could considerably delay a return to normality once the fighting ends.
While the immediate needs of farmers are more or less covered, there are questions about the sowing season in the southern hemisphere that begins in June.
Portier said the war could be the spark for Europe to develop a fertilizer supply strategy.
Following the surge in fertilizer prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European farmers reduced their consumption and diversified their suppliers.
The European Commission is preparing a fertilizer action plan for this year.
The European Union plans to allocate €100 million ($115 million) in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday after speaking with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
The EU has already provided 40 tons of supplies to Lebanon and plans more humanitarian flights, she said.
She expressed the EU’s solidarity with the Middle East country and its people and welcomed the decision to ban all Hezbollah military activities.
“We must ensure a sovereign and stable Lebanon for its people,” she said in a post on X.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Lebanon’s health minister Rakan Nassereddine on Sunday said that Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 394 people over the past week, including 83 children and 42 women.
The Turkish competition watchdog said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into 65 companies in the auditing and financial advisory sector, including major global accounting firms.
The Competition Board (RK) said the probe includes the Turkish units of the so-called Big Four accounting firms: KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY.
In a statement, the authority said the probe aims to determine whether firms and professional organizations in the sector coordinated on service fees or engaged in anti-competitive practices in the labor market.
The authority said it is examining whether companies shared service prices or client portfolios in ways that may have violated competition, whether they took decisions that could block market entry or distort competition, and whether they shared information that negatively affected employee rights and wages.
“The Competition Board, at its meeting on Jan. 29, 2026, decided to determine whether Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition was violated by making price fixing and customer sharing agreements in service (output) markets, and non-poaching and wage fixing labor agreements (input) markets; exchanging information regarding both input and output markets; and also taking decisions of undertaking associations that restrict competition,” the statement shared by the authority read.
KPMG and EY declined to comment, while Deloitte and PwC were not immediately available for comment.
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