Turkey, Azerbaijan to sign preferential trade agreement

Turkey and Azerbaijan will sign a preferential trade agreement in a strategic cooperation summit in the capital Baku on Feb. 24. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev will co-chair a High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council meeting. Erdoğan is expected to visit Azerbaijan on Feb. 25.

A total of nine agreements on trade, defense, sports, and other fields are expected to be signed between the two countries.

The expected mutual customs exemption and discount on 15 different products stand out among the deals to be signed as part of the preferential trade agreement.

Turkish businesspeople in Azerbaijan said the decisions that will be taken at the meeting, especially the preferential trade agreement, will accelerate the development of trade relations between the two countries.  

'Great contribution' to trade volume

Cemal Yangın, head of the Azerbaijan-Turkey Business Association, told state-run Anadolu Agency that the long-term friendship path on trading would start with the preferential trade deal between Baku and Ankara.

Noting that the trade relations between the two countries have been "at a good level" until today, Yangın said: "The agreement will have little impact on mutual trade volume in the first years. But we will see the benefit of this in the coming years. The agreement will greatly contribute to the trade volume."

Huseyin Büyükfırat, head of the Turkey-Azerbaijan Businessmen's and Industrialists' Association, said the agreement will further advance the trade relations between the two countries, adding that new business areas would open thanks to it.

"We, as business people, will give the utmost support to implement the agreements,...