As US President Donald Trump forges ahead with his trade wars, Turkish businesspeople are working on a new strategy to boost sales to the United States. The plan involves the creation of a Turkish industrial zone in the United States, where unpackaged food products from Turkey will be packaged and put on the market. The exportation of goods in bulk is meant to duck tariffs and make Turkish products more competitive in the US market.

The Turkish American Business Association (TABA) is leading the effort to establish the industrial zone, which would be the first of its kind for Turkey in the United States.

The association is already in contact with governors’ offices and organized industrial zones in all of Turkey’s 81 provinces to find entrepreneurs willing to invest in the US project, Erdal Cakici, TABA’s chief executive officer, told Al-Monitor. Some 170 businesspeople have so far applied to join the initiative, which hopes to attract 500 entrepreneurs. According to the plan, one or more Turkish zones will be set up in US states that offer the most favorable incentives in the Turkish areas of interest. Cakici said preliminary meetings have been held with White House advisers, the US Department of Commerce and administrators in several states.

US officials on the state level have promised support for the initiative, attracted by the prospect of new jobs, Cakici said, adding that the project would seek loan support from US creditors for the construction stage. TABA is currently preparing reports for the US authorities on the prospective size of investment, the land that is needed, the project’s financing and the number of jobs it could create.