The Atlantic

‘U.S. Relations With Turkey Are Not Good at this Time’

U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum caused the lira to slide. But ties between Washington and Ankara have been strained for a while.
Source: Murad Sezer / Reuters

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he had ordered the doubling of tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports, exacerbating relations with a NATO ally that has proven intransigent in recent years.

“I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump said on Twitter. “Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!”

One could argue they haven’t been “good” for some time. Özgür Ünlühisarcikli, an expert on transatlantic relations with the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, said Trump’s tariffs are “very bad

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was
The Atlantic7 min readAmerican Government
The Americans Who Need Chaos
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here. Several years ago, the political scientist Michael Bang Petersen, who is based in Denmark, wanted to understand why peop
The Atlantic4 min read
KitchenAid Did It Right 87 Years Ago
My KitchenAid stand mixer is older than I am. My dad bought the white-enameled machine 35 years ago, during a brief first marriage. The bits of batter crusted into its cracks could be from the pasta I made yesterday or from the bread he made then. I

Related Books & Audiobooks