Additional customs duty and non-tariff barriers in the international trade and their effects on Turkish foreign trade

Countries, being a part of international trade, try to increase their trade volumes through free trade agreements and customs unions, and they tend to reduce imports by using protectionist tools, especially in the last period. In world trade, along with the tariff measures mainly defined as the reduction of customs taxes, non-tariff measures such as anti-dumping practices, quotas, surveillance practices, technical standards are used to reduce imports. Turkey, whose foreign trade volume has increased since the 1980s, is among the countries that use these protectionist tools effectively. In addition to the non-tariff barriers, Turkey has started to apply Additional Customs Duty on the import of many different products as of 2011. This study tries to comprehend the effect of anti-dumping and Additional Customs Duty applied in Turkey by examining the process of global trade liberalisation and non-tariff measures in foreign trade. According to the analysis made using the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Trade, it has been found that anti-dumping measures have a more restrictive effect on imports than the Additional Customs Duty practices. In addition, the statistical data on the application of Additional Customs Duty show that the purpose of creating treasury income in the tax application stands out more than reducing imports.