Turkey to trade in local currencies with Iran, China

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he has plans to ditch the dollar in trade with Iran and China and instead use local currencies.  

Erdogan was quoted by the media in Ankara as saying that his government was also discussing the same idea with Moscow.

He stressed the need to put an end to US dollar dominance of trade exchange gradually by dealing in local currencies.

“Linking world trade, particularly with the US dollar, is becoming a big problem day after day,” he was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.

“Countries, companies and traders have to cope with the difficulties linked to the US dollar, the exchange rate pressures and difficulties arising from the nature of the trade itself,” the Turkish president said at the Kyrgyz-Turkish Business Forum held in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek.

The Turkish president further emphasized that the “trade facilitation system” was already becoming a major obstacle to global free trade, warning that emerging economies were suffering from this problem, with the biggest example being the economic attacks that he said Turkey had suffered in recent weeks.