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Turkish Lira Notes Circulate in Northern Syria

From Saturday to Monday alone, the black market value of the Syrian pound plummeted from 2,300 to more than 3,000 to the dollar, more than four times the official rate of around 700 Delil SOULEIMAN AFP/File
From Saturday to Monday alone, the black market value of the Syrian pound plummeted from 2,300 to more than 3,000 to the dollar, more than four times the official rate of around 700 Delil SOULEIMAN AFP/File
    Ankara, Damascus, Idlib- Saeed Abdulrazek, Firas Karam, and Asharq Al-Awsat
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Turkish Lira Notes Circulate in Northern Syria

From Saturday to Monday alone, the black market value of the Syrian pound plummeted from 2,300 to more than 3,000 to the dollar, more than four times the official rate of around 700 Delil SOULEIMAN AFP/File
From Saturday to Monday alone, the black market value of the Syrian pound plummeted from 2,300 to more than 3,000 to the dollar, more than four times the official rate of around 700 Delil SOULEIMAN AFP/File

The Turkish lira has started making its way to northern Syria following a decision by pro-Ankara military factions and local opposition councils to encourage its use instead of the Syrian pound, which has greatly decreased in value in the last days.

During three military operations backed by loyal factions, the Turkish Army had recently controlled large swathes of territory in northern Syria.

Ankara helped introduce Turkish services and government institutions and services to those areas, which host more than 3 million Syrians.

Therefore, in order to protect citizens' savings due to the rapid depreciation of the Syrian pound, local military and civil institutions hurried to adopt the Turkish lira in the area.

Mustafa Madi, the owner of an electrical tools shop in Saramand in the countryside of Idlib, told Asharq Al-Awsat, “Of course, it is safer to commercially deal with the Turkish lira instead of the Syrian lira, which is witnessing an unprecedented devaluation.”

He said the rapid depreciation of the Syrian pound inflicts immense financial losses because merchants are forced to change to prices of products all the time.

Human Rights activist Akram Junaid said: “the economic situation in northern Syria is now completely linked to the Turkish economy.”

This week, the Syrian pound’s exchange rate to the dollar crashed, hitting a record low against the US dollar (USD).

Economy and Finance in the Syrian Interim Government, Abdul Karim al-Masri said that all dealings at government institutions would be in the Turkish lira or the US dollar. “We will buy wheat and sell flour in the dollar and we will sell bread in the Turkish lira,” Masri said.

In Damascus, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the slight amelioration in the value of the Syrian lira exchange rate in the past few days came after Syrian businessmen injected US dollars in the market, in addition to a decision by the Syrian Central Bank to control money transfers from outside the country.

Such measures helped the Syrian pound to trade at 2,400 against the dollar after hitting a record low of 3,400 last Monday.

Syria's economy has been battered by nine years of war, compounded by a financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon, which had served as a conduit for dollars into government-held areas under international sanctions.

Big dealers told Asharq Al-Awsat that ATMs were currently not operating in Syria following an old dispute between the Central Bank of Syria and the Lebanese operating company, CSC Group, which is owned by Abdul-Qader Douweyk.

They uncovered that the CB is planning to transfer the contract to a relative of Asmaa Assad, the wife of President Bashar Assad.

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Trump Metal Tariffs Wreak Havoc on US Factory

Tariffs on metal imposed by US President Donald Trump are hitting small businesses like Independent Can very hard. RYAN COLLERD / AFP
Tariffs on metal imposed by US President Donald Trump are hitting small businesses like Independent Can very hard. RYAN COLLERD / AFP
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Trump Metal Tariffs Wreak Havoc on US Factory

Tariffs on metal imposed by US President Donald Trump are hitting small businesses like Independent Can very hard. RYAN COLLERD / AFP
Tariffs on metal imposed by US President Donald Trump are hitting small businesses like Independent Can very hard. RYAN COLLERD / AFP

In the sweltering US summer, metal containers decorated with snowmen and sleighs are taking shape -- but tempers are also rising as their manufacturer grapples with President Donald Trump's steep steel tariffs.

At Independent Can's factory in Belcamp, Maryland northeast of Baltimore, CEO Rick Huether recounts how he started working at his family's business at age 14.

Huether, now 73, says he is determined to keep his manufacturing company afloat for generations to come. But Trump's tariffs are complicating this task.

"We're living in chaos right now," he told AFP.

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and aluminum -- and then doubled the rate to 50 percent.

This has weighed on operations at Independent Can, and Huether expects he eventually will have to raise prices.

Not enough tinplate

With the steady beat of presses, steel plates that have been coated with tin -- to prevent corrosion -- are turned into containers for cookies, dried fruit, coffee and milk powder at Huether's factory.

But there is not enough of such American-made tinplate for companies like his.

"In the United States, we can only make about 25 percent of the tinplate that's required to do what we do," in addition to what other manufacturers need, Huether said.

"Those all require us to buy in the neighborhood of 70 percent of our steel outside of the United States," he added.

While Huether is a proponent of growing the US manufacturing base, saying globalization has "gone almost a little bit too far," he expressed concern about Trump's methods.

Trump has announced a stream of major tariffs only to later back off parts of them or postpone them, and also imposed duties on items the country does not produce.

For now, Independent Can -- which employs nearly 400 people at four sites -- is ruling out any layoffs despite the current upheaval.

But Huether said one of the company's plants in Iowa closed last year in part because of a previous increase in steel tariffs, during Trump's first presidential term.

Price hikes

With steel tariffs at 50 percent now, Huether expects he will ultimately have to raise his prices by more than 20 percent, given that tinplate represents a part of his production costs.

Some buyers have already reduced their orders this year by 20 to 25 percent, over worries about the economy and about not having enough business themselves.

Others now seem more inclined to buy American, but Huether expressed reservations over how long this trend might last, citing his experiences from the Covid-19 crisis.

"During the pandemic, we took everybody in. As China shut down and the ports were locked up, our business went up 50 percent," he explained.

But when the pandemic was over, customers turned back to purchasing from China, he said.

"Today if people want to come to us, we'll take them in," he said, but added: "We need to have a two-year contract."

Huether wants to believe that his company, which is almost a century old after being founded during the Great Depression, will weather the latest disruptions.

"I think that our business will survive," he said, but added: "It's trying to figure out what you're going to sell in the next six months."