Economy
Türkiye touts balanced trade, momentum in ties with US
Türkiye is not a country being targeted by U.S. tariff wars, a top trade official said Thursday, highlighting that they observed an acceleration in bilateral relations with Washington.
“Türkiye is not a country that the U.S. is targeting in tariff wars. They themselves state this. The facts also show it. Our foreign trade with the U.S. is balanced. Last year, it was neck-to-neck,” Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said at a summit organized by Daily Sabah’s parent company, Turkuvaz Media Group.
Addressing the event, titled “Opportunities in the Changing World Order,” Bolat evaluated trade prospects amid tariffs introduced by the new U.S. administration, recent export figures and expectations for the upcoming period.
Answering the questions related to the levies, Bolat said they were in contact with their U.S. counterparts, reiterating, however, a balanced structure of trade and a momentum in ties with Washington, which came to the fore also with the removal of sanctions previously imposed on Syria.
Referring to trade with the U.S., he said: “We have increasing liquified natural gas (LNG) and natural gas imports. We are importing passenger aircraft. We are seeing that the bans and restrictions in the defense industry are slowly being lifted.”
“A permit for rocket ammunition sales of nearly $300 million was granted two weeks ago. Efforts are being made to lift CAATSA sanctions,” he added.
“There is also a softening in this regard. Sanctions against Syria were lifted with our persuasion. At the political level, with the strong dialogue between our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Trump and the policies implemented, Türkiye-U.S. relations are being tried to be improved, and we are doing well,” Bolat said.
Reminding that negotiations are being held with Washington on tariffs, the minister went on to say that right now, “every room of the U.S. Department of Commerce has turned into a negotiation room.”
“We are continuing the negotiations there in the same way. We want some improvements. Mutual negotiations are being held,” he noted.
“There were additional taxes imposed on the steel and aluminum sectors in 2018. We are also working on some improvements in textiles,” he added.
Indeed, the Trade Ministry recently said that the third round of talks was held in Washington. However, Bolat’s remarks came as the top U.S. trade court blocked Trump’s decision to impose the so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on a number of countries, citing that they exceeded the authority given to the president.
Türkiye is exposed to a 10% baseline tariff, being one of a small number of nations with relatively more favorable conditions when it comes to the levies.
Boosts in goods, services exports
Moreover, touching upon exports, he recalled that there was an increase in exports in April. “Our exports increased in three of the first four months of the year: January, March and April. Both our exports of goods and services are going well.”
“There was a 0.3% drop in February. The reason is that last year’s February had 29 days, this year it had 28. One business day has great importance for us – $1 billion. 2025 is going well, positively and in the right direction in exports of goods and services,” Bolat said.
“There is a slight movement in America and Europe, but of course it is not like 2021-2022,” he further said, referring to the high demand during the recovery period from the COVID-19 pandemic and the high inflation and growth rates caused by that demand.
“The balancing process continues. We expect American policies to attack our European, African, Asian and other markets in the Far East. In other words, what will those producers who are from there and have difficulty selling goods to America and who are subject to high tariffs do this time? They will attack Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf, Asia and our markets. They will be our competitors. In any case, the competition will only get worse. We will try to protect our markets here as well,” the minister explained.
He also stated there was an export boom in the defense industry, jewelry and automotive sectors, while areas such as machinery products, construction materials, textiles and clothing were stable.
The minister further said that the progress in exports is good compared to the conditions in Europe, reminding that last year, goods exports reached $261.8 billion and services exports came in at $115.2 billion.
“We will share the results of the fifth month with all of Türkiye on Monday (June 2),” he said, referring to preliminary export figures for May.
“As of the first four months, we have an increase of around 5% in service exports, and a 3.9%, or 4%, increase in goods exports. We are also taking imports in a controlled manner. Hopefully, the figures will present a positive picture this month (in terms of exports and imports),” said the minister.
He also provided information that inspections regarding the fight against exorbitant prices and opportunism are continuing, suggesting that approximately TL 5 billion worth of fines were imposed as a result of inspections conducted by provincial trade directorates last year.
Bolat also once again strongly refuted claims about trade with Israel, reiterating that, “Since May 2, 2024, both exports and imports have been zero, no customs transactions have been carried out.”
He said that they repeated this multiple times in television appearances, conferences and written statements, dismissing claims as lies.
“Let them continue to lie, we will continue to tell the truth more than they do,” he said.
Türkiye completed its longest and fastest metro line on Friday with the opening of the final section of the project that further expands Istanbul’s rail transport network and strengthens links between the city center and its main airport.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the inauguration of the 22-kilometer (13.7-mile) Halkalı-Arnavutköy section, the last phase of the project that he said would significantly improve transportation for millions of Istanbul residents.
The final leg brings the total length of the fully underground Gayrettepe-Istanbul Airport-Halkalı line to 69 km. The route includes 16 stations.
“We are weaving our city, one of the world’s largest metropolises, with a population of 16 million and nearly 20 million annual visitors, stitch by stitch with a network of railways,” Erdoğan told the opening ceremony.
Before the event, he inspected the line, telling reporters that it’s “a manifestation of a modern vision.”
The first 47-kilometer section was put into service gradually in recent years.
The Kağıthane-Istanbul Airport leg was inaugurated in late January 2023, the Kağıthane-Gayrettepe section was opened in late January 2024, while the Arnavutköy-Istanbul Airport leg was launched in March of the same year.
The opening of the Halkalı-Arnavutköy section marks the completion of “one of the longest metro lines not only in Türkiye but in the world,” Erdoğan said.
The line will operate at speeds of up to 120 km per hour, making it Türkiye’s fastest metro route and one of the longest underground airport metro connections in the world.
The newly opened section includes five stations: Ibn Haldun University, Kayaşehir, Olimpiyatköy, Halkalı Stadium and Halkalı.
With the addition of these stations, around 1.5 million residents in Istanbul’s Başakşehir and Küçükçekmece districts will gain direct rail access to both the city center and Istanbul Airport.
The route is integrated with several major transportation networks.
At Halkalı station, passengers can connect to the Marmaray commuter rail system running beneath the Bosporus, high-speed rail services, the Halkalı-Bahçeşehir suburban line and the Yenikapı-Kirazlı-Halkalı metro line.
Additional transfers are available to the M3 metro line at Kayaşehir, the M9 line at Olimpiyatköy and the future M7 extension at Halkalı Stadium.
“Millions of our citizens now have easy access to central locations in Istanbul,” said Erdoğan.
Travel times on the completed route will be significantly reduced, with journeys between Halkalı and Istanbul Airport estimated to take around 30 minutes and trips between Halkalı and Gayrettepe lasting 57 minutes.
The line also incorporates Türkiye’s first domestically developed railway signalling system, produced by defense electronics company Aselsan.
The network will operate using a fully automated driverless system. Of the 25 train sets deployed on the route, 15 were manufactured to fully driverless standards.
The government estimates that the project will generate total economic benefits of 935 million euros (nearly $1.1 billion) by 2043 through time savings and lower road maintenance and operating costs.
Officials project that reduced traffic congestion alone will save travellers approximately 117 million hours over the period.
Türkiye on Friday said it had approved Uber Technologies Inc.’s acquisition of the delivery arm of Turkish company Getir from Emirati controlling shareholder Mubadala.
The global logistics giant said in February it had agreed to acquire Getir’s delivery arm, expanding the U.S.-based company’s Turkish footprint.
“The commitment by Uber Technologies Inc. to invest a total of US$500 million in Türkiye is expected to support high-quality employment, strengthen local engineering capabilities, and positively contribute to the development of Türkiye’s digital and technology infrastructure,” the Competition Authority (RK) said on Friday.
The deal comes after Uber purchased the majority of the stake in another popular delivery service firm – Trendyol Go – in Türkiye last year.
Following the closing of the deal, Uber said it plans to combine Getir and Trendyol Go.
Uber also announced last year it would establish a software and technology development center in Türkiye, with plans to invest $200 million.
Türkiye is raising the transit fee charged on international vessels passing through the Turkish straits by almost 15% as of July, a top official said on Friday.
The fee, calculated under the 1936 Montreux Convention in “gold francs” and based on vessels’ net registered tonnage, is updated annually.
“We will update the fee charged per net ton from ships, which was $5.83 in 2025, to $6.70 as of July 1,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said.
Türkiye had charged $0.80 per net ton from 1983 until Oct. 7, 2022, Uraloğlu told Anadolu Agency (AA).
The fee was revised to $4.08 per net ton in 2022. It was later raised to $4.42 from July 2023, $5.07 from July 2024, before being hiked to $5.83 last year.
The Turkish straits, comprising the Bosporus and Dardanelles, are among the world’s most important maritime chokepoints, connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
Uraloğlu said vessels passing through the waterways without stopping at Turkish ports are charged under three categories in line with the Montreux Convention: health inspection, lighthouse and salvage services.
He said the latest revision will increase foreign currency revenue for the Treasury.
Revenue from ship transits stood at $38 million between July 2021 and June 2022, before rising to $223 million between July 2024 and June last year.
That figure is expected to reach $254 million as of late June this year, Uraloğlu said.
“The rise in revenue and the price updates show the contribution to the economy,” he said, adding that the revision aims to strengthen foreign currency inflows and increase public revenue.
The U.S. Navy has allowed more than a dozen ships through to Iranian ports, lifting a blockade as part of an agreement to end the war, Vice President JD Vance said Thursday.
Vance also said he plans to go to Switzerland for talks with Iran this weekend, but that the plan could change.
The U.S. military also confirmed that American forces on Thursday lifted their naval blockade of Iranian ports after more than two months of preventing ships from sailing from or to Iran.
“Today, U.S. forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas,” U.S. Central Command said in a post on X, adding that American warships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to.”
The updates came at a White House press briefing, where Vance said more oil is now flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Republican vice president said more than 12.5 million barrels went through the shipping channel Wednesday night.
“So we’re also honoring our end of the early part of the agreement on the military side,” he said, citing it as an immediate benefit of the deal as he downplayed criticism that the agreement tilts in favor of Iran.
And in an extraordinary rebuke, he warned U.S. critics in Israel against “attacking the only powerful ally” it has left. He lashed out at members of the Israeli government, warning them that “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”
Vance said he plans to travel to Switzerland for talks on the Iran deal, but he doesn’t know when that will happen.
“We think these technical negotiations are going to start sometime this weekend. That’s still the plan, but that could change,” he said.
Vance had been expected to lead talks on implementing the agreement with Iran aimed at diluting its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and restarting oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Tuesday, two oil tankers left Iran and crossed the U.S. military blockade without being stopped. A merchant shipping tracking website said the ships were carrying a combined total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian crude oil.
Meanwhile, Iranian state media said that shipping has “normalized” at Iran’s southern ports but added that the Strait of Hormuz remains supervised and under the control of the Iranian military and transiting through the vital waterway still requires coordination.
Much of the agreement would restore the status quo before the war, including ending hostilities, restarting talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial passage for the world’s oil and natural gas whose closure created a historic energy crisis.
Major shipowners have begun moving vessels through the waterway since the agreement was signed on Wednesday, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence – though they did not give data on how many ships have passed through the strait as of Thursday.
In a media briefing, Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd’s List, said for the first time in 110 days, ships owned by major companies are transiting the strait after effectively being marooned there since February.
Tankers controlled by major ship owners Grimaldi Group, Cosco, Knutsen and NYK have passed through the strait. And two Iran-flagged, National Iranian Tanker Company-owned, sanctioned crude oil tankers have entered the strait, according to Lloyd’s List.
Phillip Belcher, marine director of Intertanko, a trade group for global independent tanker owners, said the main central route of the Strait of Hormuz is still closed and has an estimated 80 mines that need to be cleared.
But ships have been passing through the smaller Northern route, which goes through Iranian waters, and the Southern route, which goes through Omani waters.
The agreement calls for a permanent end to hostilities and starts a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, though Trump left the door open to resume attacks. It appears to offer Iran several benefits up front while extracting little in return.
It states that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium must, at a minimum, be diluted under international supervision. It also states that Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons – a commitment it has made previously. But beyond stating that the U.S. and Iran will negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program, other commitments still need to be worked out.
The European Union is considering a fundamental change to its trade policy with China amid a widening trade deficit, rising dependence on strategic sectors and growing pressure from China’s state-sponsored production model on European industry.
China, the world’s largest manufacturing hub, is boosting its outreach in global markets through state-sponsored industrial policies as it rapidly expands production capacity in many fields, especially electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, critical raw materials and high-tech products, putting pressure on Europe’s competitiveness.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the G-7 summit in Canada that the EU’s trade with China is unsustainable.
She said the EU needs to grow its production capacity, expand its network of free trade agreements around the world and diversify supply chains, especially because critical minerals and raw materials are concentrated in China, urging the bloc to avoid heavy reliance on a single supplier.
China’s dominance in global trade will be among the topics discussed during an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
The European Commission emphasized that economic relations with China should continue through risk mitigation, but current trade and investment relations between the bloc and the country are deemed unsustainable.
High-level consultations in Brussels showed that economic and security threats can no longer be assessed separately, prompting more comprehensive and coordinated policies toward China, including new tariffs, import quotas, supply chain diversification requirements and new defensive tools against economic risks emerging from the world’s manufacturing hub.
Last year marked a turning point for the EU in its trade with China, as all member states recorded a trade deficit with the country for the first time.
The EU’s imports from China reached 559.4 billion euros ($695.3 billion) in 2025, while its exports totaled $231.5 billion, marking a record high trade deficit of $417.4 billion, according to data from Eurostat.
Competition in EVs, solar panels, machinery
Intense competition from China in electric vehicles, solar panels, batteries, steel, chemicals and machinery is placing massive pressure on European manufacturers, prompting Brussels to view the impact of cheap, state-sponsored Chinese products on the European market as not only a commercial issue but also a strategic one.
The London-based Center for European Reform reported that Germany faces a serious deindustrialization risk amid China’s growing capacity, warning that Chinese firms are grabbing market share from German producers in their domestic markets, in third countries outside Europe and directly in Europe.
Reports show China could account for around 40% of the world’s industrial production by 2030, putting severe pressure on Europe’s production, research and development, or R&D, and innovation capacities.
Mechanisms to counter China
The EU is working on new mechanisms to combat this. The commission is discussing launching broad safeguard investigations into specific sectors, developing new tools to counter excessive production from China in strategic areas and implementing sector-specific safeguard measures.
Some proposals by France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania go beyond current anti-dumping processes and would impose direct, blanket customs tariffs on specific sectors instead of relying on lengthy investigations.
One of the most notable regulations the bloc is working on would mandate the diversification of supply chains for critical products to prevent European firms from sourcing resources such as chips, rare earth elements and critical industrial inputs from a single country or supplier.
The proposal would require companies to maintain at least three different sources and would place an upper limit on the share of any single supplier in the total supply.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU commissioner for trade, proposed the diversification tool to prevent potential supply disruptions, especially in semiconductors and critical raw materials.
The diversification strategy involves additional costs for firms but should be viewed as an insurance premium because the costs of supply disruptions could be much higher, according to the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, or ZEW.
Another option is a new mechanism to preserve the bloc’s resilience, allowing the direct imposition of additional customs duties and import quotas when market-distorting practices threaten the bloc’s economic security. The legal basis is expected to rest on national security exceptions under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
The EU’s hardening stance toward China is due to concerns over strategic dependence and its growing trade deficit. Beijing’s export restrictions on rare earth elements, magnets and other critical technologies have raised concerns in Europe.
Brussels does not want to see a repeat of the energy crisis that followed the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, but there is still no complete consensus within the bloc on imposing very strict trade measures against China.
Some countries, led by France, are calling for stronger tariffs, while Germany and Spain have adopted a more cautious approach because of their close economic ties to China.
The general trend in the bloc is moving toward reducing dependencies and preserving competitiveness rather than completely severing ties with China.
The new trade defense tools under discussion at this week’s summits will shape the future of economic relations between Brussels and Beijing.
Total housing sales across Türkiye fell by 31.2% year-over-year in May, reaching 93,333 units, official data showed on Thursday, marking the sharpest decline since December 2023.
Sales had reached the year’s peak in April with 126,000 units sold.
The decline in housing sales was largely influenced by the reduced number of working days due to the Eid holiday period.
The number of newly built (first-hand) homes sold across Türkiye in May fell by 27.9% compared to the same month of the previous year, totaling 30,196 units, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.
Second-hand home sales, meanwhile, decreased by 32.7% year-over-year, totaling 63,137 units.
Mortgage-backed housing sales decreased by 2.8% in May compared to the same month last year, totaling 19,754 units. Other housing sales (non-mortgage sales) fell by 36.2% year-over-year to 73,579 units.
The data also showed that a decline in sales to foreign nationals extended in May, as they decreased by 27.0% compared to the same month last year, totaling 1,387 units.
Sales to foreigners represented 1.5% of all housing sales in May.
During the January-May period, sales to foreigners declined by 15.1% year-over-year and stood at 7,068 units.
In May, the highest number of homes sold by nationality were to Russian citizens (268 units), Iranian citizens (125 units), and Ukrainian citizens (88 units).
Similarly, sales of commercial properties fell by 30.9% to 11,434 units last month.
Across Türkiye, new commercial property sales in May decreased by 24.8% year-over-year to 3,255 units.
Second-hand commercial property sales declined by 33.1% over the same period, totaling 8,179 units.
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