LEGISLATION ON THE PREVENTION OF UNFAIR COMPETITION IN IMPORTS AND ITS BRIEF HISTORY

Legislation on the Prevention of Unfair Competition in Imports consists of Law No. 3577, Decree 99/13482 and Regulation, which came into force in 1989.

The legislation was created with reference to the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and the corresponding regulations of the European Union.

With the January 24, 1980 decisions on liberalization of economy, import substitution and protectionism, of which disadvantages were experienced in the seventies, were abandoned and liberalization policies in foreign trade were adopted. In this context, import bans, quotas, permits and customs duties were gradually reduced and the industry was opened to foreign competition. As the safety valve of liberalization, the Legislation on the Prevention of Unfair Competition in Imports was enacted in 1989 in order to protect the industry against dumping-priced or subsidized imports that create unfair competition.

In the first years, both the DG of Imports responsible for implementation and the industry had a learning period. In those years, Eastern European countries which started to transition to a free market economy and Far East countries, especially China, , were the subject of more complaints and investigations. With the establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1994, the rules became more stringent and the dispute settlement mechanism in the WTO was established for practices contrary to the agreements. With the Customs Union in 1996, Turkey's customs duties were reduced to EU level. On the one hand, stricter rules and on the other hand, overwhelmed by the increasing complaints against imports, the authorities found the solution to reinforce the Anti-Damping and Subsidy Investigations Department. After a while, the applications were accelerated again. With China's accession to the WTO in 2002, complaints and investigations have increased, and China has become the main target of investigations. These developments have made Turkey an active practitioner in anti-dumping and subsidy investigations.

However, the “Additional Customs Duty” (IGV), which were first introduced in 2010 with textile and apparel products, have become increasingly widespread and have become an easy and effortless tool for both the administration and the industry. This situation has led to a gradual decrease in anti-dumping and subsidy investigations which require concrete data, transparency, right to defend and therefore take time. Nevertheless, the Legislation on the Prevention of Unfair Competition in Imports is still an important tool, since additional customs duties cannot be applied to imports from the EU and countries with which a Free Trade Agreement is signed.

Reference: Murat YAPICI, Head of Department then