Following the recent developments, the Decision of the President of the Republic of Turkey regarding added fiscal burdens on import of certain products originating from the United States was published in the Official Gazette dated August 15, 2018 and No. 30510 (“Decision”).
The Decision calls for added fiscal burdens on 22 separate categories of items originating from the US. The additional tariffs range from 4% to 140%.
“Origin” is defined as the economic nationality of a product, and determination of a product’s origin which is imported into Turkey would be subject to Turkish customs legislation. For instance, in case a product is designed in a country and the parts of this product are put together in another country or the product is packaged in another country, added value of each of these processes on the product is generally taken into consideration for the origin determination. In this regard, it would be useful for companies which will import products to Turkey to pay attention to the origin of the product when they are evaluating the Decision.
According to the Decision, an exemption is defined for the goods that already have a bill of lading to be delivered to Turkey and have been loaded onto transportation vehicles before the publication date of the Decision. The applicable additional fiscal burdens before the Decision will be applied to these products if the customs declaration is approved regarding the import of these products or summary declaration within the scope of the customs regulation is submitted within 45 days commencing from the publication date of the Decision.
The Decision came into force as of August 15, 2018 and will be applicable for the relevant item categories that do not fall within the above exemption.
The additional fiscal burdens target the following item categories.
| Position No. | Item Description | Additional Fiscal Burden (%) |
| 08.02 | Other nuts, (fresh or dried), (whether or not shelled or peeled) | 20 |
| 10.06 | Rice | 50 |
| 2106.90 | Others | 20 |
| 22.08 | Undenatured ethyl alcohol of an alcoholic strength by volume of less than 80% by volume; spirits, liqueurs and other spirituous beverages | 140 |
| 24.01 | Unmanufactured tobacco; tobacco refuse | 60 |
| 27.01 | Coal; briquettes, ovoids and similar solid fuels manufactured from coal | 13.7 |
| 2704.00 | Coke and semi-coke of coal, of lignite or of peat, whether or not agglomerated; retort carbon | 10 |
| 2713.11 | Not calcinated | 4 |
| 33.04 | Beauty or make-up preparations and preparations for skincare (other than medicaments), including sunscreen or suntan preparations; manicure or pedicure preparations | 60 |
| 3904.10 | Poly (vinyl chloride), not mixed with any other substances (Polymers of vinyl chloride or of other halogenated olefins, in primary forms) | 50 |
| 3908.10 | Polyamides in primary forms -6, -11, -12, -6,6, -6,9, -6,10 or -6,12 | 10 |
| 39.26 | Other articles of plastics and articles of other materials underheadings 39.01 to 39.14 | 60 |
| 44.01 | Fuel wood, in logs, in billets, in twigs, in faggots or in similar forms; wood in chips or particles; sawdust and wood waste and scrap, whether or not agglomerated in logs, briquettes, pellets or similar forms | 10 |
| 48.02 | Uncoated paper and paperboard, of a kind used for writing, printing or other graphic purposes, and non-perforated punch cards and punch-tape paper, in rolls or rectangular (including square) sheets, of any size, other than paper of heading 48.01 or 48.03; handmade paper and paperboard | 20 |
| 48.04 | Uncoated kraft paper and paperboard, in rolls or sheets, other than those under heading 48.02 or 48.03 | 20 |
| 48.11 | Paper, paperboard, cellulose wadding and webs of cellulose fibers, coated, impregnated, covered, surface-colored, surface-decorated or printed, in rolls or rectangular (including square) sheets, of any size, other than the goods described in heading 48.03, 48.09 or 48.10 | 50 |
| 5502.10 | Made from cellulose acetate (Artificial filament tow) | 60 |
| 7308.90 | Others | 60 |
| 8413.70 | Other centrifugal pumps | 20 |
| 8479.89 | Others | 20 |
| 87.03 | Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the transport of persons (other than those of heading 87.02), including station wagons and racing cars | 120 |
| 9022.19 | Used for other purposes | 10 |
