Hearing in Turkey over duty hike on apparel exports

05 Mar '11

2 min read

Bangladesh representatives will shortly attend a hearing in Turkey, to counter Turkey's decision of levying import duty on apparel imports, to safeguard its local industry.

Previously, the Turkish government officials had said that, as imported apparel products are being flooded in to the Turkish markets on a large scale, it has been severely impacting the country's apparel industry.

Turkey has been probing into the matter since start of the current year, and has now come out with a proposal to hike the import duty by 27 percent.

Exports from the least developed countries (LDCs) presently enjoy duty-free access to Turkey's markets, while exports from developing and developed nations are subjected to a duty imposition of 9.6 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

According to the officials of the Bangladesh Commerce Ministry, if Turkey imposes 27 percent duty on imports from LDCs, the move would badly hit the Bangladesh's exports to Turkey.

Bangladesh's apparel exports to Turkey almost doubled during the last fiscal to grow to US $970 million, but this new hike, could prove to be a deterrent to future exports.

Turkish firms like Mevi, Collins, Defactor, Tema, Mevi Jeans, Akin Textile, Cons Jeans and Alkan Tex are the major importers of Bangladeshi apparels.

Prior to imposition of the protective duty, a bilateral hearing would be held in Ankara in Turkey on March 7 and 8, which would be attended by six members of the Turkish government and representatives from Bangladesh.

The parties to the hearing will have to lay their contentions in writing and submit the same for consideration by March 18.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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