International Trade: Turkey Amended Rules on the Determination of Preferential Origin of Goods in Trade within the Scope of Bilateral Cumulation Rules of Origin

The Ministry of Trade of Turkey has recently issued the “Amending Regulation on Determination of Preferential Origin of Goods in Trade within the Scope of Bilateral Cumulation Rules of Origin” (“Regulation”), which is in force as of March 26, 2021. Accordingly, the Regulation changes certain matters relating to the determination of preferential origin of goods in trade within the scope of bilateral cumulation rules of origin and administrative cooperation methods within the framework of free trade agreements.

While the Regulation excludes the implementation of related provisions under free trade agreements engaged between Turkey and Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, State of Palestine, and Croatia out of its scope; it covers the procedures and principles regarding the implementation of Protocol II on the Definition of the Concept of Originating Products and the Methods of Administrative Cooperation specified under the free trade agreement signed between Turkey and Georgia.

Furthermore, as per the Regulation, products originating in one of the contracting parties shall benefit from the incentives stipulated by the agreement upon submission of one of the certain documents at the time of their import into the other party. Accordingly, “EUR.1 certificate” (movement certificate) constitutes one of such proof of origin documents that makes contracting parties to benefit from the provisions of the free trade agreement. In this regard, EUR. 1 certificate is issued by the customs administrations or persons, or organizations authorized by the Customs Under secretariat to ensure that the originating products can benefit from the provisions of the agreement and visaed by the customs administrations.

The Regulation also stipulates that EUR.1 certificate may be issued after the exportation in certain matters. In such case, the request of the exporter who meets the stipulated conditions under this Regulation, is examined by the relevant customs administrations or persons or organizations authorized by the Customs Under secretariat. As per the Regulation, the statement of “issued retrospectively” is written in the observations box numbered 7 of the EUR.1 certificate in the language determined under the agreement. However, the Regulation excludes Arabic language from among the languages that can be written in the observations box. It also stipulates that such statement is recorded electronically.

Ezgi Ceren Aydoğmuş, Esra Temur