ISTANBUL – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n
Turkish State Minister Zafer \u00c7a\u011flayan (C), \u00d6mer Vardan of M\u00dcS\u0130AD (second from R), Mehmet B\u00fcy\u00fckek\u015fi of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (far right), Canadian Minister Peter van Loan (second from L) and Y\u0131lmaz Arg\u00fcden, head of the Turkish-Canadian Business Forum, pose for the cameras during a press conference in Istanbul on Dec. 7, 2010.<\/p>\n Turkey and Canada are exploring the possibility of signing a free trade agreement, according to a top businessman who spoke to the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Speaking during a visit by a Canadian trade mission to Istanbul, Y\u0131lmaz Arg\u00fcden, head of the Turkish-Canadian Business Forum, said Canada was preparing to sign a free trade agreement first with the European Union and then with Turkey.<\/p>\n Canada also officially opened a consulate in Istanbul during the visit.<\/p>\n The visit was jointly organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, or DE\u0130K, and the Independent Industrialists\u2019 and Businessmen\u2019s Association, or M\u00dcS\u0130AD.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is too early to say whether we should have a free trade deal or not,\u201d said Peter van Loan, Canada\u2019s minister of international trade. \u201cWe would like to consider this after a free trade agreement signed with EU,\u201d he told the Daily News. Van Loan said Turkey, a strong economic performer with a dynamic market of 72 million people, has a \u201ckey place in the global economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Disappointing bilateral trade<\/p>\n Noting that the bilateral trade is relatively low, Zafer \u00c7a\u011flayan, Turkey\u2019s foreign trade minister, said Canada had a total trade volume of $800 billion in 2008 while Turkey had $300 billion of foreign trade in the same year. \u201cUnfortunately, the volume between the two countries remained at only $1.2 billion,\u201d \u00c7a\u011flayan said.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, Canada\u2019s total imports were $327 billion, while Turkey\u2019s exports to Canada stood at $330 million,\u201d said the minister, calling for stronger trade relations.<\/p>\n \u00c7a\u011flayan also called for Canadian energy companies to invest in Turkey. \u201cWe were not able to reach an agreement with South Korea for Turkey\u2019s second nuclear power plant. Canadian firms are welcome to bid on constructing the plant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCanada has great expertise in clean technologies and especially nuclear power plants,\u201d said van Loan, noting that Canadian firms are interested in energy investments in Turkey. Canada accounts for 10 percent of the global nuclear energy market, while the country\u2019s nuclear energy industry is valued at $6.6 billion annually, according to Atomic Energy of Canada.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s Istanbul consulate was opened in the high-rise office tower of Tekfen, located in the Levent financial district. The consulate mainly aims to serve Canadian and Turkish businessmen but does not accept visa or immigration applications. The consulate will be led by Michael Ward.<\/p>\n \u00c7a\u011flayan said a Turkish Trade Center and a Turkish Trade Consultancy would be opened in Toronto next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISTANBUL – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News Turkish State Minister Zafer \u00c7a\u011flayan (C), \u00d6mer Vardan of M\u00dcS\u0130AD (second from R), Mehmet B\u00fcy\u00fckek\u015fi of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (far right), Canadian Minister Peter van Loan (second from L) and Y\u0131lmaz Arg\u00fcden, head of the Turkish-Canadian Business Forum, pose for the cameras during a press conference in Istanbul on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":431828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[846,491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-canada-north-america-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}