Ambassador James Jeffrey's Speech at American Business Forum in Turkey (ABFT) Anniversary Dinner

January 26, 2010

James Jeffrey Speaks at ABFT's Anniversary Dinner

I’m pleased to be here to help celebrate the 6th anniversary of the founding of ABFT.

ABFT’s Vision Statement says that it “is dedicated to advocacy leadership on behalf of [its] member companies and in support of free markets, liberalized trade and transparency.  To this end, ABFT aims to be a credible, respected and effective partner and bridge between the public and private sectors in Turkey and the United States.”

We are 100 percent behind this concept.  We are 100 percent behind the further development of Turkish-American commercial and economic relations. 

It’s been a very, very important year in this regard.  And as I think most of you know, when President Obama came here last April, he met with President Gül at the very beginning of his stay in Ankara.  And President Gül made it clear that we need to further strengthen the economic, commercial and trade [inaudible] of our bilateral relationship. 

President Obama could not agree more.  And he has tasked us all, as has President Gül and Prime Minister Erdoğan – the Turkish Government and the Turkish business sector – to find ways to come together and try to improve the economic and trade relationship between our two countries.

Turkey is a great market.  It is a new powerhouse in the world.  It has a well-deserved status in the G-20 as one of the very important economies, and we want to see more trade.  Alas, we don’t have the same amount of trade between us that we see, for example, between Turkey and Europe or between the United States and East Asia.  And it’s hard to explain why this is so, because we do see very successful exporters, from motor vehicles manufactured here in Turkey and now exported to the United States for the first time, to dozens of small companies I’ve visited with [inaudible] who have market niches in the United States.  The same thing is true of course – and we have representatives of these businesses here tonight – of American firms that have found very very successful work in Turkey. None the less, we need to do more. And we have been looking at this for the better part of the year. A lot of cooperation between the United States and Turkey is at what we call (inaudible) economic level, it isn’t reflected in trade statistics, but the support that we have given Turkey -- in the Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan oil pipeline, that we’re now giving with Nabucco, cooperative work in Iraq which has some very important energy and economic dimensions -- are examples of how the United States as a government can be helpful with our international economic relations with Turkey. 

Nonetheless, there has to be a strong economic (inaudible) involving the private sector. Thus determines Prime Minister Erdoğan’s visit last month to Washington, on the 7th of December, the President and the Prime Minister announced a new framework for strategic economic commercial cooperation and we’re working on putting, as we say, “meat on the bones”, of this new structure right as we speak.  There will be a series of meetings this spring that will culminate in the formal launch of this, we are putting under its umbrella meetings which will be held annually such as TIFA which deals with trade and investment, the economic cooperation forum that we have, also our energy working group.  There are a number of things we are already doing but we’re going to accelerate the entire (inaudible).   

We’re also looking to the private sector to provide advice, to set up a board, or a council of private companies to advise both governments.   We’re referring to the traditional organization like ABFT and others that represent American firms and American interests in Turkey but also representing Turkish firms to work with us and we will be getting back on how firms can participate in this.  For the moment, what we are looking at is the value added of the (inaudible) through organizations such as ABFT.  The Survey that is produced every year is the flagship document that we, the U.S. Government turn to, when trying to explain where corrections can be made in how we deal with Turkey and how Turkey receives investment and receives American firms.  It is a very very valuable document and we’re looking forward to its release later this year.  Thus organizations such as ABFT show their real value in reaching out to try to remove obstacles, and try to at least identify them, between our two countries.  Again, our two-way trade, in a good year, has been as high as $15 Billion USD, we could triple, or increase even more, that trade, in the next several years if we can all work together.  This is the commitment of the Obama Administration, I know it’s the commitment of the Turkish Government and once again it’s a great honor to be here with you tonight.

Thank you very much.