The Turkish government has increased customs duties on various imported goods by rates ranging up to 30% until September 30th, 2020. Goods included are jewellery made of gold and precious stones, refridgerators and freezers, dish washers, washing machines, air conditioners, ovens and cookers, floor covering materials, sticking tapes, some sport materials, locks, hand tools, water filters, musical instruments and other miscellaneous goods. There was an additional item in the Presidential Decree relating to the import regime regulation which said that import duty increases would automatically be replaced by rates of up to 25% on October 1st, 2020.
Turkish manufacturers and exporters welcomed this news which would help Turkish business to compete in the Turkish market and develop their export capabilities. There has however been criticism that the new customs duties increases will only significantly increase inflation since local manufacturers will have the opportunity to raise their prices in turn.
Turkey increased import duties on some finished and semi-finished steel products for three months as of April 18th, 2020. Accordingly, customs duties on some alloy and non-alloy billet, slab, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, coated coil, stainless steel, sections and some bar products were increased by 5% effective April 18th through July 15th, an increase from the previous range of 9%-15% to 14%-20%. Customs duty rates were also increased by 2% for three months for some users that benefit from lower import rates, including pipe-makers and white goods producers. These will now rise from a 6%-7% range to 8%-9%. EU countries and countries with which Turkey has free trade agreements were exempted from the duty increases. These increases also do not apply to products used as input in the production of Turkish exported products, and it is unlikely therefore that imports will have been significantly decreased.