Turkey and the EU confirmed their willingness to cooperate in the green transformation of their economies during the third Turkey-EU High Level Dialogue on Trade meeting held in Brussels, according to a statement from the Turkish Ministry of Trade Oct. 15.
The statement said that the two regions confirmed their will to act together in new areas of cooperation, such as the circular economy and the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).
To comply with the EU’s climate change policies, Turkey announced its Emission Trading System (ETS) Aug. 27, which was published in the Official Journal, to expand regulation, monitoring, reporting, and verification processes to align with the EU’s ETS.
“In the context of the Industrial Acceleration Law (Made in EU), which has recently been at the center of our agenda with the EU, our legitimate expectations to protect our integrated supply chains connected by the 30-year Customs Union and to have our country included in this process as an equal partner,” have also been discussed, the Ministry said.
The EU and Turkey underlined the strategic importance of their trade relationship and reaffirmed their shared interest in promoting growth, competitiveness, and resilient value chains, they said in a joint press statement following the meeting.
There were, however, concerns among Turkish steelmakers that the new EU steel safeguard measures introduced in July and the EU’s Industrial Acceleration Law could result in a notable loss of Turkey’s steel and automotive exports to the region.
Noting that the loss in steel product exports to the EU, Turkey’s traditional top export destination, could reach around 4 million mt/year, Turkish Steel Producers’ Association said in a recent statement to Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, that, although the impact had only been partially reflected during January-August, total steel exports to the EU had already declined by 21.7% year over year to 3.2 million mt.
Platts assessed Turkish exported rebar at $615/mt FOB Turkey Oct. 14, unchanged day over day.
Author: Cenk Can
