Turkey and North Africa improve trade relations by 48 percent

Turkey’s trade relations with north African countries of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are improving after a period of stagnation due to the Arab Spring.

Turkey’s exports to these three north African countries went up 84 percent in the first quarter of 2012 when compared to the same term last year.

The security problem in Syria has forced Turkish exporters to use Mersin-Port Said-Duba route.

In the first quarter of 2012, Turkey’s exports to Libya went up to 526 million USD from 264 million USD, to Tunisia 208 million USD from 139 million USD and to Egypt 917 million USD from 496 million USD.

Turkey’s total exports to north African countries was calculated as 6.7 billion USD as of the end of 2011. This figure happens to be 5 percent of all Turkish exports.

01.06.2012
SOURCE: CUMHURIYET ENGLISH