Customs brokerage practices in Turkey and the professional effects of authorized customs brokerage

As a natural consequence of global trade, increased trade relations between countries require cooperation and interaction. This process requires streamlining existing methods, reducing formalities, strengthening and expanding logistics infrastructure, identifying and removing trade barriers to make things faster, more reliable and easier. Today, in parallel with these trends, our country's foreign trade volume and customs procedures are increasing. In order to effectively manage the increasing volume of foreign trade, information and documents related to foreign trade must be processed in accordance with international law. However, it may not always be possible to verify these information and documents quickly and reliably, and it may be difficult to ensure their compliance with existing legal systems and special circumstances. In this context, the Ministry of Trade has authorized customs brokers to effectively implement customs procedures and to carry out the necessary determination procedures in a way to inform the customs authorities. In this new field, where the customs brokerage profession has evolved and developed, it is aimed to realize import and export and other customs procedures in a faster and safer manner. With the establishment of a robust and regular structure of the authorized customs brokerage profession, benefits such as operating in an independent and impartial manner in accordance with the standards set by the ministry, completing customs transactions in warehouses and bonded warehouse regimes accurately, safely and quickly, creating a more effective and stronger customs public service, preventing customs smuggling that may occur in warehouses and officially recording all transactions in the system are expected. It is believed that this amendment will positively affect the cooperation and trust environment to be established between companies engaged in foreign trade and customs procedures, authorized customs brokers and the customs administration. In order to make sound assessments on the subject, the duties, responsibilities and obligations of authorized customs brokers must first be clearly defined. Some specialization theses prepared by the Ministry of Trade provide information on this subject, but considering the recent amendments to the legislation and the deficiencies in the existing literature, this new profession needs to be examined and evaluated in more detail. The purpose of this study is to examine the customs brokerage and authorized customs brokerage system in detail, to determine the duties, obligations and areas of responsibility of the authorized customs brokerage practice, to analyze the functioning in customs administrations and the potential effects of this practice. In the study, data were collected face-to-face through semi-structured interviews. As a result of the study, it was determined that the authorized customs brokerage system makes customs procedures simpler and faster, increases the efficiency of customs procedures, and provides better quality and effective customs services to citizens. In addition, it has been observed that it has positive effects on employment opportunities related to the profession and is beneficial for public finance. The fact that authorized customs brokers carry out detection procedures on-site and share the data instantly with the ministry units reduces expenditures and protects both civil servants and the administration from unnecessary accusations. In addition, by making the customs brokerage profession a reliable institution and by managing the practice by accurate, impartial and independent brokers, it is thought that it will also provide significant advantages such as reducing tax losses, preventing customs smuggling and recording the majority of transactions.