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UK Trade Secretary Liz Truss in March 2020
Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS / REUTERS
Turkey and Great Britain have signed a free trade agreement.
In this way, both countries want to ensure the continuity of their economic relations after Great Britain leaves the EU internal market.
Turkish Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan signed the agreement on Tuesday during a video chat with her British colleague Liz Truss.
According to the German Press Agency (dpa), Pekcan said the trade agreement would ensure duty-free trade for all agricultural and industrial products.
After Germany, Great Britain is Turkey's largest export market.
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In return, Turkey is particularly important for the British auto industry: Ten percent of the trade volume is attributable to the US group Ford, which supplies British-made auto parts to Turkey that are used there for the construction of the Transit model.
According to British figures, the trade volume of the two countries amounted to 18.6 billion pounds in 2019 (around 20.5 billion euros).
Truss said the deal would be a huge win for the UK automotive, manufacturing and steel industries.
It paves the way for another agreement with Turkey in the near future.
Because of the trade agreement, the Turkish currency lira rose on the stock exchange.
In return, the dollar fell just under a percent to a three-month low of 8.9935 lira.
Trade agreements with 60 countries so far
The EU and Great Britain had only agreed on a trade agreement on Christmas Eve.
The deadline for this would have expired at the end of this year.
Due to the exit from the EU, the United Kingdom has to re-negotiate numerous trade agreements with third countries.
So far there are treaties with more than 60 states, in most cases they are copies of the EU treaties with these countries.
A trade deal with the most important trading partner USA is not yet in sight for Great Britain.
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bah / dpa / Reuters