Recent Presidential Decrees Made Some Changes to the Turkish Trade Regulation
| International Trade
Recent Presidential Decrees Made Some Changes to the Turkish Trade Regulation
Article by Ertuğrul Can Canbolat and Hasan Güden
The Turkish President's decrees published on 10 August 2018 amended various provisions concerning customs matters. Below will be sketched the measures (i) establishing additional duties against imports of wall paper and wall coatings, (ii) lowering the customs duty rates on some agricultural products, and (iii) modifying the list of countries eligible to Turkey's generalised system of preferences.
1. Safeguard Measures against Imports of Wall Paper and Wall Coatings
As a result of the safeguard investigation conducted by the Turkish Ministry of Trade, the Turkish President's Decree 181 extended for three years the safeguard measures (in the form of additional duties) on imports of certain wall paper and wall coating products by reducing the previous duties. The products concerned and the measures taken are as follows:
|
CN Code |
Product |
Additional Duties |
||
|
06.08.2018-05.08.2019 |
06.08.2019-05.08.2020 |
06.08.2020-05.08.2021 |
||
|
4814.20.00.00.00 |
Wall papers and similar wall coating products (those face rough, embossed, painted, pattern printed, or made from paper, plastered or coated with a layer of plastic otherwise decorated) |
3.75 USD/kg |
3.5 USD/kg |
3.25 USD/kg |
|
4814.90.10.00.00 |
Wall papers and similar Wall coating products, which are rough, embossed, painted, pattern printed or made from paper, coated or otherwise covered with protective transparent plastic materials, the surface of which is otherwise decorated |
|||
|
4814.90.70.10.00 |
Wall papers and similar wall coating products (those face made of paper coated with plaited materials (whether these materials are joined together in parallel strands or flat-woven) |
|||
Furthermore, the decision also provided a list of countries or customs territories (not including the EU countries nor the U.S.) which will be exempt from the afore-mentioned additional duties up to a certain threshold (quota) for a given period. Accordingly, the imports of the concerned products originating in those countries (customs territories) are exempted up to 1,043 tonnes for each of the three periods mentioned in the table above. Furthermore, no country (or customs territory) can benefit from an exemption of more than 347 tonnes per period.
2. Reduction of the Customs Duties on Imports of some Agricultural Products
The purpose of the Council of Minister's Import Regime Decision 95/76062 is to make sure that imports are made in conformity to Turkey's interest and pursuant to the requirements of international trade. The Turkish President's Decree 193 decision updated the customs duties imposed to the imports of the products falling under the CN codes listed in the List 1 (concerning agricultural products) attached to the Import Regime Decision 95/7606. The list below is mainly related to products such as seeds, certain types of oil, or residues of starch:
|
Product4 |
Duty Rate (%) |
||||||||
|
EU, EFTA, Faroe Islands |
Georgia |
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
South Korea |
Malaysia |
Singapore |
D-8 |
Others |
||
|
1 |
Sunflower seeds (whether or not broken): other; shelled; in grey-and-white-striped shell: other |
13 |
13 |
0 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
|
2 |
Sunflower seeds (whether or not broken): other |
13 |
13 |
0 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
|
3 |
Residues from the manufacture of starch from maize (excl. concentrated steeping liquors), of a protein content, calculated on the dry product (exceeding 40 % by weight): corn gluten |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
4 |
Residues of starch manufacture and similar residues: residues from the manufacture of starch from maize (excl. concentrated steeping liquors), of a protein content, calculated on the dry product (exceeding 40 % by weight): other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
5 |
Residues of starch manufacture and similar residues: residues from the manufacture of starch from maize (excl. concentrated steeping liquors), of a protein content, calculated on the dry product (not exceeding 40 % by weight): corn gluten |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
6 |
Residues of starch manufacture and similar residues: residues from the manufacture of starch from maize (excl. concentrated steeping liquors), of a protein content, calculated on the dry product (not exceeding 40 % by weight): other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
7 |
Residues of starch manufacture and similar residues, incl. concentrated steeping liquors (excl. of starch from maize) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
8 |
Beet-pulp |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
9 |
Bagasse and other waste of sugar manufacture (excl. beet pulp) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
10 |
Brewing or distilling dregs and waste |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
11 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of groundnut oil |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
12 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of cotton seeds |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
13 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of linseed |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
14 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of sunflower seeds |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
15 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of low erucic acid rape or colza seeds yielding a fixed oil which has an erucic acid content of < 2% and yielding a solid component of glucosinolates of < 30 micromoles/g |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
16 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of high erucic acid rape or colza seeds yielding a fixed oil which has an erucic acid content of >= 2% and yielding a solid component of glucosinolates of >= 30 micromoles/g |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
17 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of coconut or copra |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
18 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of palm nuts or kernels |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
19 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of corn germs |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
20 |
Oilcake and other solid residues from the extraction of olive oil (>= 3%) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
21 |
Oilcake and other solid residues from the extraction of olive oil (< 3%) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
22 |
Oilcake and other solid residues resulting from the extraction of vegetables: other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3. Update of the List of Countries Eligible for Preferential Tariff Treatment
The Presidential Decree 205 amended the Annex 4 to the Import Regime Decision 95/7606 which sets forth the list of the countries eligible to benefit from Turkey's generalized system of preferences that grants a preferential tariff treatment to some developing and less-developed countries. Article 15 of the WTO Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 and Article XXXVI of the GATT 1994, among other provisions, authorise the implementation of such a preferential treatment between WTO members.
According to this decision, the list of eligible countries has been updated as follows:
- Developing countries: Bolivia, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Ivory Coast, Philippines, Ghana, Kenya, Kirghizstan, Congo, Micronesia, Nigeria, Nauru, Niue, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tajikistan, and Tonga.
- Less-developed countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Bhutan, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, South Sudan, Haiti, Cambodia, Kiribati, Comor Islands, Laos, Liberia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Burma/Myanmar, Mauritania, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nepal, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somali, Sao Tome and Principe, Chad, Togo, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu, Samoa, Yemen, and Zambia.
Footnotes
1. See the Turkish Official Gazette dated 10 August 2018 and numbered 30505.
2. Entered into force on 20 December 1995.
3. See the Turkish Official Gazette dated 10 August 2018 and numbered 30505.
4. The CN codes of those products are as follows:
|
1: 1206.00.91.00.19 |
2: 1206.00.99.00.19 |
3: 2303.10.11.00.11 |
4: 2303.10.11.00.19 |
|
5: 2303.10.19.00.11 |
6: 2303.10.19.00.19 |
7: 2303.10.90.00.00 |
8: 2303.20.10.00.00 |
|
9: 2303.20.90.00.00 |
10: 2303.30.00.00.00 |
11: 2305.00.00.00.00 |
12: 2306.10.00.00.00 |
|
13: 2306.20.00.00.00 |
14: 2306.30.00.00.00 |
15: 2306.41.00.00.00 |
16: 2306.49.00.00.00 |
|
17: 2306.50.00.00.00 |
18: 2306.60.00.00.00 |
19: 2306.90.05.00.00 |
20: 2306.90.11.00.00 |
|
21: 2306.90.19.00.00 |
22: 2306.90.90.00.00 |
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