Turkey on Friday welcomed Washington's decision to halve tariffs on steel imports, and urged the United States to remove all trade obstacles.

"Elimination of the additional 25-percent tariffs on Turkish steel imports is a positive step. However, we expect the eradication of all obstacles to bilateral trade," Turkey's Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan tweeted.

Pekcan's statements came after US President Donald Trump's decision to cut tariffs on Turkish steel imports from 50 percent to 25 percent.

The US doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium imports in August, 2018 amid a diplomatic spat over the detention of a US pastor.

Meanwhile, the White House announced the end of Turkey's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, a policy of preferential trade treatment for its participant countries. The decision took effect on Friday.

Pekcan criticized the US move contradicted the countries' mutual goal of 75 billion dollars in annual bilateral trade, saying it will also hit US companies.

The GSP program allows duty-free exports of thousands kinds of industrial products to the US Turkey has been a part of GSP since 1975.

In March, the US said Turkey would no longer benefit from the scheme since the country was "sufficiently economically developed."