10.10.2020 Ankara
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, TESK President Bendevi Palandöken, TİM President Ismail Gülle, DEİK President Nail Olpak, TÜSİAD President Simone Kaslowski, MÜSİAD President Abdurrahman Kaan, TMB President Mithat Yenigün and YASED President Ayşem Sargın made a joint statement against Saudi Arabia's calls for a boycott.
The statement reads:
As Turkish businesspeople, we believe that it is of utmost importance to continue with our commercial and economic relations smoothly with Saudi Arabia.
We believe that the growth and
development of Turkish and Saudi economies, which complement one another, rely
on continuing trade between our countries on a win-win basis. Because, we know
that trade brings wealth and prosperity to people.
Despite all these, we regret to
see that Saudi Arabia is taking an increasingly negative stance against Turkish
companies. We learn from the complaints reported by Turkish companies, which
are also taken up by the press, that Saudi authorities state that no imports
would be made from Turkey. Furthermore, it is stated that many Saudi companies
which supply goods from Turkish companies are forced to sign a letter of
commitment not to import goods from Turkey.
And recently, global logistics
companies have been warning their customers about the obstacles that Turkish
companies face in Saudi Arabia, that they should be prepared for long waiting
times at Saudi customs for goods arriving from Turkey and that imports from
Turkey might even be blocked. Thus, this issue has gone beyond bilateral
economic relations and become a problem for global supply chains.
Finally, it has been a massive
disappointment for the businesspeople of both countries that the President of
the Council of Saudi Chambers Mr. Ajlan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Ajlan tweeted on
October 3, 2020 that it is the duty of all Saudi nationals to boycott Turkish
products.
All these negative developments
we have pointed out above, are also valid for Turkish contracting companies
that have contributed to the Saudi Arabian economy for years and have
successfully completed hundreds of important projects in the country so far.
Our contractors have not been invited to the important tenders for sometime and
they have not been given any new big projects.
We deeply regret the discriminatory
treatment that our companies face in Saudi Arabia.
Any official or unofficial initiative
to block trade between the two countries will have negative repercussions on
our trade relations and be detrimental to economies and people of both countries.
Decreasing supply from Turkey
will lower the business volume and revenues of Saudi companies and will
negatively affect the purchasing power of Saudi nationals who prefer Turkish
products for their quality and price with confidence.
In this context, we, the Turkish businesspeople,
expect Saudi authorities to take concrete initiatives to resolve the problems
in our trade and economic relations.
We are confident that we can
surmount any kind of problem with constructive dialogue and cooperation.