Ankara has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the Saudi unofficial boycott campaign of Turkish goods.
Turkey has informed the WTO of its dissatisfaction with the negative treatment of products and Turkish export companies by Saudi Arabia that restricts trade between the two countries.
Ankara also sent a letter to the Saudi authorities, requesting it to expedite the release of Turkish goods trucks stranded in customs.
Turkish Trade Minister Rohsar Bakjan said that, since November 15, 2020, Saudi Arabia has suspended a number of imports from Turkey, including egg products, milk, white meat and others.
Bakjan indicated that the Turkish advisors and attachés in Saudi Arabia took the necessary measures to release the goods, while the Saudi authorities sometimes took a decision to return some of them to the “country of origin”.
The Minister considered that this falls within the framework of negative practices towards Turkish exports by the Saudi authorities.
Bakjan confirmed that she had sent three letters to Saudi Minister of Commerce Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, on July 17, 2020, October 5, 2020, and January 22, 2021, expressing Turkey’s annoyance about the bad treatment of Turkish companies.
She said that the Saudi Minister of Trade claimed that there was a strategy to ensure free trade with all trading partners in accordance with international obligations and that there were no discriminatory measures against Turkey.
Bakjan revealed that they have taken the necessary measures and presented them to the World Trade Organization in order to solve the problem, and said that they presented all Saudi practices restricting Turkish trade to the meeting of the Commodity Trade Council, as part of the procedures to be followed in the organization.
The issue was also recently on the agenda at Saudi Arabia’s trade policy review meeting in March.
