Suspending free trade pact harms Syrians

The Syrian economy, hit hard by five months of anti-government protests, could survive unrest and sanctions into next year but experts and officials warn of a sharp deterioration afterwards. AFP PHOTO/JOSEPH EID

ISTANBUL: Syria is punishing its own people by suspending a free trade agreement with Turkey in retaliation for Turkish sanctions against the Damascus regime, the Turkish economy minister said Sunday.

By cutting off bilateral trade, “the Syrian government punishes its own people, industrialists … and entrepreneurs,” Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said in a statement carried by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Damascus decided last week to suspend the 2004 trade pact after Turkey, one of Syria’s closest economic partners, followed in the footsteps of the Arab League in announcing a series of sanctions on the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad for its months-long crackdown on anti-regime protesters that has claimed more than 4,000 lives according to the United Nations.

Among the measures, Ankara froze trade and severed links between the two countries’ central banks.

Turkey has a trade surplus with Syria, exporting goods worth a total of $1.8 billion (1.3 billion euros) to its neighbor in 2010, while imports from Syria were $663 million, accounting for only 0.3 percent of Turkey’s total imports, Caglayan said.

However, 10.6 percent of Syria’s total imports are from Turkey, he added.

“Suspending the agreement syria will expose Syria to more problems, as it already suffers from procurement issues,” Caglayan said.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on December 05, 2011, on page 4.

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