Full-year trade figures for 2010 issued by Turkstat, the Turkish statistics agency, show that Turkish exporters have continued to expand their presence in the Syrian market, benefiting from the strong political relationship between the two governments and from the free-trade agreement, which was signed at the end of 2004. Turkish exports to Syria rose by 30% year on year in 2010 to US$1.85bn, making Syria the seventh-largest market for Turkish goods in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, after Iraq, the UAE, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Libya. In 2010 Turkish exports to the MENA region totalled US$27bn (of which the nine countries in the table below accounted for US$24bn). This was equivalent to almost one-quarter of Turkey's total exports of US$114bn last year. Turkish imports from the region were about US$20bn, out of a total of US$185bn (Turkey imported US$21.6bn from Russia, mainly oil and gas). Syrian exports to Turkey increased too, more than doubling between 2005 and 2010 from US$272m to US$662m.

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