Trump smacks Turkey with heavier tariffs
Status of US pastor remains thorny issue
WASHINGTON – Wielding tariffs as a foreign policy weapon, President Donald Trump said Friday that he would increase duties on steel and aluminum from Turkey as the two nations argue about a imprisoned American.
“I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump tweeted. “Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%.”
He also wrote: “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!”
The tweeted tariff threat came little more than a week after the Trump administration placed sanctions on Turkish officials over the imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson, calling his detention “unjust” and “unacceptable.” Those sanctions targeted Turkey’s minister of justice, Abdulhamit Gul, and minister of interior, Suleyman Soylu.
Although narrowly tailored, those penalties have contributed to a slide in the value of Turkey’s currency, the lira, amid fears of a broad economic crisis.
Bulent Aliriza, an expert on Turkey with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said Trump’s latest decision to ratchet up tariffs will push Turkey’s economy “into more difficult waters.”
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump “has authorized the preparation of documents” to raise steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey, citing a section of the U.S. trade law that allows penalties “on imports from particular countries whose exports threaten to impair national security.” Turkey is a NATO ally. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded defiantly to Trump’s announcement Friday.
“We will not lose the economic war,” Erdogan said during a tour of Black Sea provinces, according to the Hurriyet Daily News, an English language outlet. “This is a national struggle.”
Aliriza said Trump’s move will strengthen Erdogan in the short run because it allows him to fan existing anti-American sentiment in Turkey.
The proposed tariff hikes come just days after Turkey’s deputy foreign minister was in Washington to meet with U.S. officials on a range of contentious issues, including Brunson’s detention.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert declined to detail those conversations Thursday during a briefing with reporters, and she declined to say whether the two sides made any progress on the release of Brunson. “We would define progress as Pastor Brunson being brought home,” she said.
Previously, Trump has used tariffs against countries he claims are engaging in unfair trade practices against the United States. The action against Turkey appears to flow from political differences between the two countries, particularly the Brunson case.
Turkey accuses Brunson, arrested in 2016, of being a spy and says he was involved in an attempted coup. The U.S. says he has been falsely charged.