Türkiye suspends trade relations with Israel until aid is allowed into Gaza

Türkiye suspended all commercial activities with Israelboth export and import, until the Jewish State allows the uninterrupted entry of humanitarian aid LinkThe Turkish Ministry of Commerce announced this Thursday.

“Export and import negotiations with Israel have been interrupted in a measure that covers all products, moving to a second phase of state measures”, says a statement from the ministry, cited by the public body Anadolu.

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On April 9, Türkiye banned the export of a wide range of products to Israelsuch as steel, concrete and other materials that constituted the majority of bilateral trade, as a pressure measure to speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza.

“The new measure will be applied decisively and decisively until the Government of Israel allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza”, highlighted this Thursday the Turkish Ministry of Commerce.

He recalled that the decision to restrict exports of products from 54 categories was taken as a pressure measure when Israel did not respond “international efforts for a ceasefire, continued massacres and human drama”in Gaza.

“On the other hand, the Ministry of Commerce Turkey is coordinating with the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy so that this restriction does not affect our Palestinian brothers forced to live under occupation“, adds the statement.

Hours before the Turkish decision was made official, the Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katzhas already advanced this in a message on his X account, where he accuses the Turkish president, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdoganto act as a “dictator”.

“Erdogan breaks agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports. This is how a dictator acts, ignoring the interests of the Turkish people and traders and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote.

“I have instructed the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to immediately coordinate with all relevant Government stakeholders to create alternatives to trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.” he added.

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“Israel will emerge with a strong and courageous economy. We win, they lose”, concluded the head of Israeli diplomacy. Israel was Turkey’s tenth client country in 2022, importing Turkish products worth almost 7 billion dollars, especially in the metallurgical, steel, cement, automobile and electronics sectors.

Israel and Turkey severed diplomatic relations last October, withdrawing ambassadors, but trade continued uninterrupted and even increased, according to the Turkish Exporters Association (TIM).

According to data from this association, cited by the newspaper Birgün, the volume of Turkish exports to Israel went from 317 million dollars last January to 423 million in March, with a total of 1.1 billion dollars in the entire first quarter.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.