Turkey to trade in local currencies with Iran, China
Turkey has plans to ditch the dollar in trade with Iran and China and instead use local currencies, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan was quoted by Press TV as saying that his government was also discussing the same idea with Moscow.
He underlined the need to put an end to US dollar dominance of trade exchange gradually by dealing in local currencies. “Linking world trade, particularly with the US dollar, is becoming a big problem day after day,” he said.
“Countries, companies and traders have to cope with the dif¿culties linked to the US dollar, the exchange rate pressures and dif¿culties arising from the nature of the trade itself,” the Turkish president said at the Kyrgyz-turkish Business Forum in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek.
The Turkish president further emphasized that the ‘trade facilitation system’ was already becoming a major obstacle to global free trade, warning that emerging economies were suffering from this problem, with the biggest example being the economic attacks that he said Turkey had suffered in recent weeks.
“The aim of manipulating foreign exchange rates is to raise doubts about the strength and robustness of the Turkish economy,” Erdoğan said.
“All the steps taken by the global credit rating institutions are politicized. These institutions are not honest, they are fraudulent and [we] do not believe them.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Turkish president insisted that his country was determined to achieve full economic independence, especially in defense industries and that its economy would overcome the current phase and emerge stronger than it was in the past.