Announcement on Technical Arrangements in Foreign Trade

Regulation on Technical Arrangements in Foreign Trade" (the "Regulation") has been published in the Official Gazette dated 16 August 2023 and numbered 32281 by the Ministry of Trade (the “Ministry”)

The Regulation pertains to ensuring the safety and adherence to relevant technical arrangements of products involved in foreign trade. In pursuit of this objective, the adaptation of pertinent technical arrangements to foreign trade, their implementation in foreign trade, conducting inspections for imports and exports, determining the entities responsible for these inspections, and establishing procedures and principles regarding measures to prevent the import and export of products that is not complied technical arrangements or are not reliable, have all been defined.

As per the Regulation, the necessary inspections for compliance with legislation and commercial quality of agricultural and food products subject to export will be conducted by the relevant units of the Ministry, following the procedures and principles determined by the Ministry. Inspections are to be carried out at the designated locations within twenty-four hours at the latest and may be re-conducted if necessary. If found to be in compliance with the Regulation, a conformity certificate is issued to the exporter or their representative. Permissions and exceptions applying to importers may be determined by the Ministry.

In the event that products exported to European Union member countries are found to be non-compliant by the competent authorities of the member state, the relevant data to be considered has been established. For countries which are not member of European Union, mandatory standards for products to be exported to these regions have been stipulated, with guidelines provided by the Ministry in case of non-compliance.