Turkey hits US with retaliatory tariffs

Ankara: Turkey on Thursday became the latest country to hit back at the US for its tariffs on steel and aluminium.

Turkey's Ministry of Economy said that it was imposing tariffs worth $267 million on US goods, targeting items like coal, paper, walnuts, tobacco, rice, whiskey and cars after negotiations with Washington failed to yield meaningful progress, CNN reported.

"Turkey is committed to active, robust and reciprocal trade relations with the US -- but with the understanding that fairness cannot be one-sided," Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said in a statement. "We cannot and will not allow Turkey to be wrongly blamed for America's economic challenges."

The US enacted 25 per cent tariffs on imported steel and 10 per cent tariffs on imported aluminium in March. Exemptions were initially given to the EU, Canada and Mexico, but the Trump administration let them lapse at the beginning of the month.

Turkey didn't receive an exemption.

Later, the EU, Canada and Mexico announced retaliatory tariffs against the US. China imposed tariffs on $3 billion of US products in early April in response to the steel and aluminium measures.

Turkey is the world's eighth largest steel exporter, according to a report prepared in March by the Department of Commerce. The US was Turkey's top market for steel in 2017.