Ready for retaliatory tariffs on US imports: Turkey

Ankara, June 6: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara was ready to impose retaliatory tariffs on US imports from June 21, after Washington's steel and aluminium tariffs.

A total of $266.5 million in additional duties will be charged on 22 items of US imports, including coal, paper, walnuts, almonds, tobacco, unprocessed rice, whiskey, automobiles, cosmetics, machinery, equipment and petrochemical products, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. The highest additional customs duties will be imposed on whiskey and automobiles at 40 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, said the report on Tuesday.

In March, US President Donald Trump announced imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on imported steel and a 10 per cent tariff on imported aluminium, prompting general criticism from many countries and causing turmoil in the global stock market.

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci warned earlier that his country could take retaliatory measures. Zeybekci also said that Turkey and the EU decided to move together at the World Trade Organisation platform against the US. Turkey is the world's eighth-largest steel producer and the sixth largest steel exporter to the US after Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Russia. (IANS)