Turkey wants measures to facilitate trade among Islamic nations

President Recep Tayyip Erdoan on Wednesday said Islamic countries should take active measures to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from harming foreign trade.

“In order to save foreign commerce from major devastation, we must take measures that encourage and facilitate trade,” Erdoan told a virtual meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC).

“We must mobilize our resources to reduce the economic effects of the pandemic and ensure the continuity of production and demand,” Erdoan added.

He urged COMCEC members to ramp up efforts for greater use of local currencies in trade.

“We [Islamic countries] should step up efforts to ease currency pressure on our economies, including the use of local currencies in trade,” he said.

On efforts to coordinate standards for halal products, made in line with Islamic standards, Erdoan said COMCEC members have been working on this for some time but were yet to achieve the level of coordination they want.

“As Islamic countries, the more we produce, the more we strengthen our economies,” he added.

The future will see the world’s interest-based economic system replaced by participation based on risk-sharing, Erdoan said.

“In this case, it is important to expand the use of products such as [Islamic] sukuk to finance large long-term infrastructure investments,” he added.

A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, which complies with Islamic jurisprudence, also known as fiqh.