Türkiye on Tuesday announced new measures by which it hiked the customs duty applied to goods with a value not exceeding 30 euros ($33) sent via mail and cargo, doubling to 60% the duty on goods coming from countries outside the European Union, as per decree published in the Official Gazette.
It said the customs duty on such goods coming from EU countries has been increased to 30% from 18% under a presidential decree. The same rates are set to apply for drugs with a value of less than 1,500 euros, the regulation said.
If they are special types of products, an additional 20% tax on top of the combined tax will be levied under regulation no. 4760 dated 6/6/2002.
The new regulation is expected to particularly affect small personal orders made from popular cheap shopping sites abroad. At the same time, the overseas express shipping shopping limit has been reduced from 150 euros to 30 euros.
This move follows recent hints from Trade Minister Ömer Bolat about upcoming regulations concerning online shopping through platforms from abroad, such as Chinese Temu.
Temu, owned by China’s PDD Holdings, has gained popularity in Türkiye in the recent period. One of the fastest-growing apps, it entered Türkiye recently and has been present in the European Union since last year.
Trade Ministry, however pledged to protect consumers and domestic businesses and according to some analysts the latest regulation can be read as a decision to prevent the increasing import of consumer goods.
Türkiye has a high bilateral trade volume with China, which is being largely shifted toward imports.