Turkey's President and Trump Talk Tariffs, Russian Fuel Purchases
President Donald Trump said he and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would talk about changing Turkey's tariff treatment in their meeting Sept. 25, but after the two-hour meeting ended, there was no announcement on adjusting the scope of Turkey's 15% reciprocal tariffs, or Section 232 tariffs on steel.
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Turkey exported more than a half-billion dollars' worth of iron and steel products to the U.S. last year.
In comments in the Oval Office, Trump focused on convincing Turkey to stop buying Russian oil and gas. According to Bloomberg, about two-thirds of Turkish oil imports are from Russia and about 40% of its natural gas imports are from Russia.
"I’d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine," Trump said. Trump acknowledged that Erdogan likes to be neutral, favoring neither Russia nor Ukraine, but he said that if Erdogan "got involved, the best thing he could do is not buy oil and gas from Russia."
Later in the afternoon, Trump said Erdogan didn't agree to stop buying Russian oil and gas, but added, "I believe he will stop it," because they have other countries they could buy from.
"You know who really can't is Hungary. They're landlocked. They have one pipeline coming. And Slovakia, too, they're sort of married to one pipeline. I don't want people to go blaming them. We spoke to them at length today," he said.
Erdogan came to Washington hoping to get permission to buy certain U.S. military equipment, including F-35 jet fighters. Turkey was banned from the F-35 program during Trump's first term, because Turkey bought a Russian missile defense system. Trump made no firm commitment in front of the press, but said, "I think he’ll be successful with buying the things he’d like to buy. He needs certain things, and we need certain things."
Later, Trump said that he hadn't OK'd F-35 sales, but that he may if Turkey does something for the U.S.
Trump also said in the morning, "We’re going to make some great trade deals for both countries. We buy a lot from them. They buy a lot from us."
As an aside, Trump said he plans to give government payments to farmers who are struggling during the transition.
"Some of that tariff money we’re going to give to our farmers," he said. "For a little while, they’re going to be hurt before the tariffs kick in to their benefit."