Turkey's minister asks two countries to sign free trade agreement

ANKARA (A.A) - 15.04.2011 - Turkey's state minister for foreign trade has asked Turkey and Azerbaijan to sign a free trade agreement as soon as possible.
Zafer Caglayan said on Friday that Turkey and Azerbaijan should lift obstacles before improvement of their bilateral trade.
"Azerbaijan should lift visa procedures for Turkish citizens as soon as possible," Caglayan said during Turkey-Azerbaijan Business Forum meeting in Ankara.
Caglayan said Turkey wanted Turkish and Azerbaijani businessmen to cooperate in third countries.
Turkey-Azerbaijan trade volume was around 2.5 billion USD in 2010. Turkey's exports to Azerbaijan totalled 240 million USD, while Azerbaijan's exports to Turkey were around 210 million USD in the first two months of 2011.
"We can easily raise our bilateral annual trade volume to 10 billion USD. We can also increase it to 3 billion USD by the end of this year," Caglayan said.
Caglayan expressed belief that Turkey and Azerbaijan could raise their trade volume to 5 billion USD in case they signed the free trade agreement.
The minister said Turkish businessmen should go to Azerbaijan without a visa, just as Azerbaijani people who were visiting Turkey without a visa, and expressed belief that the issue would be solved soon.
Caglayan also said Turkey would never come together with Armenia as long as the Upper Karabakh dispute remained unsolved.
Moreover, Azerbaijani Minister of Economic Development Shahin Mustafayev said that two countries could cooperate more in energy, and Turkish and Azerbaijani businessmen could make joint investments in third countries. 
More than 1,300 Turkish companies are operating in Azerbaijan, and they have almost 2 billion USD of investments in Azerbaijan.
There are 800 Azerbaijani companies operating in Turkey.