As part of the Saison de la Turquie en France (Season of Turkey in France), a conference organized by the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIP) brought together businesses from 11 nations from the Middle East, Central Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa. Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan, speaking at the forum on Tuesday, called for the three continents to act together in fostering integration to achieve better business relations.
Speaking on the global financial crisis and the recent downturn in global markets, Çağlayan stated that there is uncertainty in global markets but stressed: “The world has become a global village. Even though the European Union has unjust visa regulations for Turkish businessmen, borders have been lifted for global trade.” Continuing to criticize the economic policies of the European Union towards Turkey, Çağlayan underlined that Turkey was not being given the right to a free trade agreement with the EU as a third country under the framework of the customs union and that this was leading the way to unfair competition.
Speaking about the commercial crisis involving French car manufacturer Renault’s Clio 4 model, over which President Nicolas Sarkozy had admonished top Renault managers for deciding to produce all units of the model in Bursa in 2013, telling them to produce a portion of them in France, Çağlayan noted that “in an environment where even a few dollars make a competitive difference for a manufacturer like Renault, I highly recommend that they go forward with their plans to produce their cars in Turkey. This will not only be beneficial to Turkey but also to France.”
He told reporters on Wednesday at the Turkish Embassy in Paris that Turkey’s exporters had learned vital lessons from the global financial crisis and that they had found that they could not only sell their products to specific economic powerhouses but to many different nations. He also revealed that they were working on an Internet networking system to bring together Turkish businessmen from all over the world.
