Turkey lodges complaint against US tariffs: WTO

Geneva: Turkey has lodged a complaint against additional US duties on steel and aluminium at World Trade Organization, the international trade court said Monday.

US President Donald Trump earlier this month announced on Twitter that he had doubled steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey amid a row over an American pastor held for two years on terror charges.

"Turkey claims that the measures are inconsistent with a number of provisions of the WTO´s Agreement on Safeguards and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994," said a statement on the WTO´s website.

The first stage in the process is a request for bilateral consultations to attempt to resolve the dispute. It can take years to resolve disputes if WTO trade judges become involved. The two NATO members are at odds over Turkey´s detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson.

The announcement of the tariffs on August 10 caused the Turkish lira to crash nearly 20 percent, and prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to claim his country was victim of a "political plot" and an "economic war". Turkey subsequently hiked tariffs on imports of several key US products such as rice, hard alcohol, leaf tobacco, cosmetics and cars.

Meanwhile, Turkey and Qatar have signed a swap deal to facilitate trade between the two allies as the Turkish currency is battered by a deepening spat with Washington, the Turkish central bank.

The agreement was signed in Doha on Friday before the markets closed for a one-week holiday for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, it said in a statement.

"The swap agreement has been signed over Turkish lira and Qatari Riyal and concluded with an overall limit of three billion USD," it added. "Core objective of the agreement is to facilitate bilateral trade in respective local currencies and support financial stability of the two countries."

Gas-rich Qatar last week promised to make a $15 billion direct investment in Turkey during a visit to Ankara by emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thanked the emir and the people of Qatar for "standing by Turkey" while saying relations with Doha, which he described as a "friendly and brotherly country," would be boosted in many areas.

Turkey has been rocked over the last weeks by a sharp decline in the value of its lira after US President Donald Trump announced Washington was doubling aluminium and steel tariffs for Ankara. Washington´s move came during an ongoing dispute over Turkey´s holding of an American pastor for two years.

In response, Erdogan has called for a boycott of US electrical goods while Ankara has sharply hiked tariffs on others. Turkey and Qatar -- which is also a very close US ally -- have become economic and political partners in recent times. Erdogan´s government notably backed Doha during Saudi Arabia-led embargoes in 2017.