TODAY.AZ / Business

Turkey to offer customs privileges to Azerbaijan

21 February 2017 [12:18] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Nigar Abbasova

Turkey is ready to exempt importers of products manufactured in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan from paying customs duties.

Turkey’s Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Faruk Celik in an exclusive interview with Trend said that to meet the needs of Turkey’s eastern provinces in food products, certain goods can be imported from neighboring countries as part of the border trade.

"At the same time, Turkey must act in accordance with the rules of the World Trade Organization," the minister noted.

Turkey imposes high tariffs on imported production, namely on the import of agricultural production, to secure its domestic market.  For a certain period of time, Baku and Ankara has been in talks on giving customs privileges to the exporters of goods, produced in Nakhchivan to expand export of Azerbaijani production to Turkey.

Back in 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkey adopted a resolution on regulation of border trade. Under the document goods from Nakhchivan will be imported within the set limit.

"In line with this resolution, zero rate of customs duty will be introduced for goods imported from Nakhchivan,” the minister clarified.

He further emphasized that Nakhchivan is a nexus between Turkey and Azerbaijan mentioning that the Autonomous Republic has strategic importance due to its location.

Turkey’s Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci earlier voiced his country’s intention to simplify customs procedures with Azerbaijan, and establish a “green corridor”, similar to the one existing between Russia and Turkey.

Green Corridor mode, which implies simpler customs clearance, may provide smooth transit of goods. One of the advantages of the regime is that goods transported by entrepreneurs do not have to undergo customs inspection and examination when crossing the border. Moreover, the mechanism also applies to documents, minimizing certain bureaucratic issues.

Besides, Baku and Ankara continue technical discussions on the draft of the preferential trade agreement. Turkey actively pushes trade in local currencies with a number of countries and offers Azerbaijan to use the manat and the lira for mutual payments in bilateral trade.

The two countries signed a protocol on creation of the Joint Committee on Customs Issues in 2015 during the visit of a Turkish delegation to Baku.

Though mutual trade between Turkey and Azerbaijan has been growing steadily over the last 15 years, the top officials of both countries have been repeatedly saying that the current level of trade turnover is far below the real potential of the economic ties of the countries.

Turkey became the main trade partner of Azerbaijan in 2016, while trade turnover between the countries amounted to $2.3 billion, with some $1.13 billion of the sum accounting for export and $1.18 billion falling to a share of import operations. The countries plan to bring the volume of trade turnover to the level of $15 billion in the coming years.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/158812.html

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