Saudi Arabia has officially placed an official embargo on Turkish exports since October 3, amid growing political tensions between the two nations. Riyadh had unofficially hindered the entry of Turkish goods after the relationships began to deteriorate following the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are backing opposite sites in the Libyan civil conflict. There is also a report that Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh military conflict against Armenia has angered Saudi Arabia and its ally, the UAE.
Bloomberg reported that Ankara is not ruling out an appeal to the WTO as cargo arriving in Saudi ports is subject to possible import bans or delayed customs clearance. According to the report, Turkish goods, including perishable products, were still available in the kingdom as of Thursday. Saudi Arabia is Turkey’s 15th-largest export market and a transit point for its products. Saudi Arabia used to import $3.3 billion of goods from Turkey while exporting $3 billion worth of products to the country.
