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13 November 2023
Thank you, Chair,
First of all, I would like to extend my warm welcome to the delegation of Türkiye led by His Excellency, Deputy Minister Mustafa TUZCU and appreciate the government of Türkiye for the preparation for this review, and also sincerely congratulate our Turkish colleagues upon the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye. Furthermore, I would also like to express my gratitude to the Discussant, Her Excellency, Ambassador Zhanar AITZHAN for her insightful remarks. Let me also thank the Secretariat for their hard work.
China commends Türkiye’s efforts to implement its social economic strategy during the review period, including actively responding to the impact of external shocks on the economy, developing international trade relations, supporting the multilateral trading system, as well as effectively participating in regional integration processes.
The global economy was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, Türkiye has responded rapidly and effectively to the pandemic while adopting various macroeconomic policies to promote economic recovery. It is encouraging to see that Türkiye registered positive GDP growth from 2016 to 2021. More importantly, Türkiye achieved the highest economic growth rate of 11.4% among G20 members in 2021.
China is pleased to note that trade has contributed substantially to Türkiye’s GDP growth between 2016 and 2021, Its export of goods grew 47.2% in value terms while imports increased by 31.9% over the same period. That demonstrates the remarkable progress Türkiye has made in active participation in global value chains. We are also delighted to see a substantial increase in the share of the manufacturing to Türkiye’s GDP.
China appreciates Türkiye’s firm commitment to the multilateral trading system and its substantive contribution to the WTO by accepting the Trade Facilitation Agreement. We would like to express our sincere thanks to H.E. Ambassador Alparslan ACARSOY for his leadership as Chair of the Special Session of Committee on Agriculture. China looks forward to more active role played by Türkiye in JSIs, such as investment facilitation for development that has been co-sponsored by around 120 WTO members. It is expected to incorporate JSIs negotiation outcomes into WTO framework at MC13,
The time-honoured friendship between China and Türkiye dates back to the era of the ancient Silk Road, via which we learned from each other and cooperated with each other in connecting Asia and Europe. Since the establishment of Strategic and Cooperative Partnership between China and Türkiye in 2010, bilateral relations has entered into fast lanes, and we are seeing fruitful results achieved through mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation.
China is now Türkiye’s largest trading partner in Asia. According to Turkish statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and Türkiye amounted to 44.6 billion USD, an increase of 64% compared with that of 2016. Over the same period, China’s import from Türkiye increased by over 69% while export to Türkiye increased by 66%. We have over 1,000 Chinese enterprises investing in Türkiye’s manufacturing and other sectors, which further enhances the docking of China’s Belt and Road Initiative with Türkiye’s Middle Corridor Initiative.
China is willing to work closely with Türkiye to promote bilateral trade growth, enhance trade and investment facilitation, strengthen cooperation in emerging and key areas, and deepen cooperation and coordination under the multilateral framework.
However, we regrettably noticed that Türkiye had applied 40% additional tariff against electric vehicles imported from China, which clearly exceeds the 20% bound tariff committed in the WTO. This is a serious violation of both Türkiye’s commitment in Schedules of Concessions and Türkiye’s MFN obligation. We urge Türkiye to follow WTO rules and withdraw these measures. It is firmly believed that with the joint effort from both sides, the Strategic and Cooperative Partnership between China and Türkiye will be further strengthened.
For this review, China has submitted the written questions to Türkiye, we appreciate the replies. We will study them carefully.
To conclude, I would wish the TPR of Türkiye a complete success.
Thank you, Chair.
