GOT Non-Committal on U.S. Non-Agricultural

UNCLAS ANKARA 008708 SIPDIS STATE PASS USTR FOR DBIRDSEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD TU SUBJECT: GOT Non-Committal on U.S. Non-Agricultural Tariff Proposal REF: State 243208 ¶1. Econoff met with Tevfik Mengu, Acting Director General for Agreements at the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat, on November 29 to deliver reftel demarche on our proposal for negotiating elimination of all non-agricultural tariffs by all WTO members by 2015. Econoff emphasized that, under the proposal, tariffs on exports of interest to Turkey, particularly steel and garments, would be eliminated, and that, Turkey, which has sharply cut tariffs on industrial goods under its EU customs union, would benefit greatly from tariff elimination by all WTO members. Mengu did not comment on our proposal, other than to say that Foreign Trade would study it carefully. ¶2. Comment: In previous contacts with this agency, Foreign Trade officials have stressed that Turkey's trade liberalization in recent years has generally been painful for domestic industry and opened up large trade deficits. They have been reluctant to consider proposals which would dilute further the low tariff protection (averaging four to five percent for non-EU trade partners) the GOT is currently able to provide to domestic industry. Pearson