Turkey, Philippines hold trade meeting

By Mumin Altas and Busra Nur Uslu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey and Philippines on Tuesday held their first Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli and Philippine Trade and Industry Minister Ramon Lopez in the capital Ankara.

Before the meeting, Canikli and Lopez held a closed-door meeting that lasted for 45 minutes.

Following the first economic commission meeting, a number of memorandum of understandings (MOU) on trade, investment and agriculture sectors were signed between the two countries.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the bilateral trade volume between Turkey and the Philippines was nearly $280 million in 2017.