UK: Johnson government signs a multi-billion-dollar trade deal with Turkey amid Trump sanctions
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Britain and Turkey are set to sign a multi-billion-dollar free trade deal this week, despite Trump’s sanctioning of Turkey due to its threats in the region and worldwide.
British trade minister Liz Truss boasted:
“We now look forward to working with Turkey towards an ambitious tailor-made UK-Turkey trade agreement in the near future.”
All this as the Trump administration has cracked down on Turkey. According to the Jerusalem Post:
Those around Trump realized Ankara is hosting Hamas terrorists, having pleasant meetings with Iranian officials and working with Russia against US interests. This has come to a head in the fall and winter as the State Department finally condemned Turkey for giving a red carpet to Hamas terrorists and US sanctions have kicked in after Turkey acquired Russia’s S-400.
In early December, to cushion American sanctions, the Venezuelan regime under Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuelan firms to sign trade deals with both Turkey and Iran.
The Turkish government has also been using US mosques to spread “Islamist-nationalistic fervor,” similar to what Saudi Arabia and Iran have been doing to export their supremacist, jihadist ideologies. David L. Phillips, Director for the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, stated: “These mosques are not places of worship….They are centers for political mobilization functioning like madrasas, distorting Islamic [sic] and radicalizing youth.”
“Britain says it will sign free trade deal with Turkey this week,” Reuters, December 27, 2020:
(Reuters) – Britain and Turkey are set to sign a free trade deal on Tuesday, the UK trade ministry said on Sunday, the first since Prime Minister Boris Johnson secured a new trade agreement with the European Union.
The two nations will sign a deal that replicates the existing trading terms between Ankara and London, but British trade minister Liz Truss said that she was hopeful a bespoke deal between the countries could be struck soon.
“The deal we expect to sign this week locks in tariff-free trading arrangements and will help support our trading relationship. It will provide certainty for thousands of jobs across the UK in the manufacturing, automotive and steel industries,” Truss said in a statement.
“We now look forward to working with Turkey towards an ambitious tailor-made UK-Turkey trade agreement in the near future.”….