RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG22/6/Add.2
18 October 2000
(00-4306)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:  English
CUSTOMS UNION BETWEEN TURKEY AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
Questions and Replies
Addendum
This document reproduces oral questions addressed to the Parties and the joint responses
provided by them. The questions and replies set out below are organised in accordance with document
WT/REG22/5.
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I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AGREEMENT
1. Membership and Dates of Signature, Ratification and Entry into Force
Have the provisions of Decision 1/95 been substantially changed since the first
examination of the Customs Union by the CRTA in October 1996?
No.
II. TRADE PROVISIONS
1. Import Restrictions
Do the Parties have any plans to present a single Schedule of concessions in the WTO?
No.
Could the Parties provide detailed information on tariff lines that had increased
following the entry into force of the Common Ex ternal Tariff (CET), in particular whether the
tariff increase had been made for tariff lines fo r which there was no immediate introduction of
the CET but rather a transition period to move to the CET?
The EC tariff did not change fo llowing the establishment of the Customs Union.  As far as
Turkey’s import regime is concerned, no tariff increases have been made to date for products coveredby Article 15 of Decision 1/95 or by Decision 2/95.  To the contrary, tariffs have been aligned to the
CET in accordance with the timetable envisaged by the said Article.  This alignment will be
completed at the beginning of 2001, and as a result the alignment process will then be completed for
industrial products.WT/REG22/6/Add.2
Page 2
For non-agricultural products, were there any tariff lines where tariff quotas had been
applied by the EC and where Turkey would now im plement the CET?  In these cases, would the
tariff quotas be adjusted to take account of imports coming into Turkey?
Yes. But since any such tariff quotas are applied by each Party unilaterally, no adjustment
was necessary to the EC tariff quotas.
5. Safeguards  &
6. Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures
Could the Parties confirm that in the fu ture they would not automatically extend
anti-dumping and countervailing duties and safeguard measures without individualinvestigations and that they would apply these measures only in compliance with specific WTO
agreements?
Decision 1/95 contains no provisions for the automatic extension of trade defence measures.
Article 46 of the Agreement stresses the principle of autonomy in trade defence regimes, so measuresimposed on products originating in third countries will continue to be collected as previously in each
part of the Customs Union, and not be extended to the other part.  The Agreement states that this
autonomous regime will continue to apply until the Association Council, set up by the Agreement,
decides otherwise.  In any event, any future regime  will be in full conformity with the Parties’ WTO
obligations.
8. Sector-Specific Provisions
8.1 Agriculture
Have there been any adjustments to EC tariff quotas to take account of Turkish
imports?  Were there any items where tariffs had previously been applied but which would now
be imported under tariff quotas?
As previously stated, there was no change to the tariff quotas applied by the EC for
agricultural products.
Have the liberalization commitments been  changed or any firm liberalization
commitments/time-lines been agreed for sectors that had not yet been fully liberalized?  When
would full liberalization for agriculture occur?
Some negotiations on agriculture to extend further the scope and depth of liberalization have
led to additional liberalization commitments which entered into force on 1 January 1998.
How have the Parties treated their agricultural budgetary and access commitments?
There has been no change to the WTO Schedules of either Party.WT/REG22/6/Add.2
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It appears from the Articles dealing with the agricultural component of the Agreement
that this applied only to products originatin g in non-preferential third countries.  Could the
Parties make available a list of those preferential third countries that were exempt from this
arrangement?  Could the Annexes outlining how the agricultural component is calculated be
made available to the Secretariat?
The Agreement provides that an agricultural component may continue to apply to trade in
processed agricultural products between the Parties (i.e. to those products listed in Annex 1 of the
Agreement).  The relevant Annexes of Decision 1/95 have already been submitted to the WTO
Secretariat, where they are available for consultation.
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