As per the Decree on Implementation of Tariff Quota in Import of Certain Textile Goods (“Decree”) implemented with the Presidential Decree numbered 2394 published in the Official Gazette dated 11 April 2020 and numbered 31096, a tariff quota has been established with regards to import of goods under the customs tariff statistics position 5903.10.90.90.00, 5903.20.90.90.00 and 5903.90.99.90.00 and described as “Others (Only Water-repellent Textile)”, by industrialists who use such in their manufacture as input, with an additional customs tax of 0% for 5.000.000 m2 units, until and including 31 December 2020.

With regards to importation within the scope of this tariff quota, the additional customs tax provisions determined under Additional Decree to the Decree on Import Regime put into effect with the decree of the Council of Ministers dated 12 September 20122 and numbered 2011/2203 shall not be applied. With regards to importation outside of this scope, the additional customs tax determined under the Additional Decree to the Decree on Import Regime shall be applied for the said goods.

In addition, as per the Decree, Turkey’s Ministry of Trade General Directorate of Import shall prepare import licenses for the importation to be done within the scope of the Decree and the customs declarations for the goods to be imported under the Decree must be registered within the validity terms of such import licenses.

As per the Decree, procedures, and principles regarding the application to the tariff quota, distribution, administration, and execution of the tariff quota shall be determined with a communiqué to be published by the Ministry of Trade. The concerning Communiqué on Administration of Import Tariff Quota (Number: 2020/5) (“Communiqué”) has been published in the Official Gazette dated 11 April 2020 and numbered 31096.

The procedures and principles determined with the Communiqué are as follows:

Tariff Quota Application

  • The tariff quota implemented with the Decree shall be distributed to industrialists who use such goods in their manufacture as input by means of request collecting.
  • In order to benefit from the tariff quota, applications must be made by authorized persons on behalf of companies within 15 business days as of 11 April 2020 through the website of the Ministry of Trade via electronic signature.
  • The Communiqué also includes a sample application form as well as a list of documents to be included in the application. The documents to be submitted along with the application form are determined as the certified copy the capacity report prepared in the name of the company and including detailed units of the goods and proforma invoices pertaining to the goods subject to importation.
  • If the application is missing information or documents, the Ministry of Trade shall grant a period of five days for the completion thereof.
  • Companies applying for several different goods, separate applications must be made for each good.

Distribution

  • If the total requested tariff quota is the same as or less than the opened tariff quota, the requests shall be met provided that the consumption amounts indicated incapacity reports are not exceeded.
  • If the total requested tariff quota is more than the opened tariff quota, the distribution shall be made by considering one or more of criteria such as a number of valid applications, total request number, actual wastage, production amount, production capacity, consumption capacity, total import amount and usage performance of the tariff quota allocated in the previous years.

Import License

  • With the scope of the import to be made within the scope of the tariff quota, the import license prepared electronically by the Ministry of Trade shall be required by the customs administrations when registering the customs declarations.
  • Goods subject to the tariff quota shall only enter free circulation with the validity term of the import license.
  • The import licenses to be prepared shall be valid until and including 31 December 2020.
  • Import licenses cannot be transferred to third persons.
  • The General Directorate of Import shall be entitled to make changes to the information recorded on the import license ex officio if needed or upon request of the concerning company.
  • Requests regarding the increase of the amount recorded on the import license shall not be taken into consideration.

Please see this link for the full text of the Decree and this link for the full text of the Communiqué (only available in Turkish).