Turkey to boycott U.S.-made electronics

ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would boycott U.S.-made electronic products, escalating a feud with the Trump administration that has contributed to the rapid decline of the Turkish currency.

The currency, the lira, tumbled against the dollar last week when President Donald Trump said he was doubling tariffs on imported Turkish metals to punish Erdogan for refusing to free an American pastor currently on trial in Turkey. The argument over the pastor, Andrew Brunson, has sparked the worst crisis between the NATO allies in decades and led to fears that Turkey’s economic problems could cause a new global financial crisis.

“We are going to apply a boycott on America’s electronic products,” Erdogan said Tuesday during a televised speech, adding that there were alternatives, produced by South Korean or Turkish companies. He did not say when the boycott would start or how it would be enforced.

“If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung on the other side,” he said, referring to the phone by Apple that became closely associated with Erdogan himself two years ago when he used the phone’s FaceTime feature to rally citizens during a failed coup attempt.

The Turkish president, who is voluble even in his country’s calmest moments, has spoken in public repeatedly as the currency has tumbled, repeating his assertions that the depreciation is due to the sabotage by outside powers and insisting that the fundamentals of the Turkish economy are strong.

His comments have so far failed to quell a crisis that economists say is largely self-inflicted, owing to an overheated economy and the debt exposure of Turkey’s companies and banks.