US embassy cable - 02ANKARA8708

UNCLAS ANKARA 008708 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR DBIRDSEY 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, TU 
SUBJECT:  GOT Non-Committal on U.S. Non-Agricultural 
Tariff Proposal 
 
 
REF: State 243208 
 
 
1. Econoff met with Tevfik Mengu, Acting Director 
General for Agreements at the Foreign Trade 
Undersecretariat, on November 29 to deliver reftel 
demarche on our proposal for negotiating elimination of 
all non-agricultural tariffs by all WTO members by 2015. 
Econoff emphasized that, under the proposal, tariffs on 
exports of interest to Turkey, particularly steel and 
garments, would be eliminated, and that, Turkey, which 
has sharply cut tariffs on industrial goods under its EU 
customs union, would benefit greatly from tariff 
elimination by all WTO members.  Mengu did not comment 
on our proposal, other than to say that Foreign Trade 
would study it carefully. 
 
 
2. Comment:  In previous contacts with this agency, 
Foreign Trade officials have stressed that Turkey's 
trade liberalization in recent years has generally been 
painful for domestic industry and opened up large trade 
deficits.  They have been reluctant to consider 
proposals which would dilute further the low tariff 
protection (averaging four to five percent for non-EU 
trade partners) the GOT is currently able to provide to 
domestic industry. 
Pearson