The problems of the free zone applications in Turkey and the comparision of them with the applications in European Union

How the developments of free zones in Turkey since the foundation date of Turkish Republic are and whether any change in the status of free zones in our country after Customs Union established between Turkey and European Union and today is required or not constitute the subject of this study. The development of free zones in the world and in Turkey, free zone applications in the European Union and in Turkey, trade statistics of Turkish free zones and comparison of Turkish free zones legislation with that of European Union during the process of entrance to the European Union are discussed. In this respect, historical developments related to the Turkish Free Zones, the events that introduced the idea of establishing free zones, arrangement in legislation done for establishing of free zones, failures in this subject and the way of drawing up the current legislation whose basis have been constructed in the early 1980?s have been represented. The free zones in our country which have functioned by the year 2006 have been evaluated in terms of statistics. Furthermore, functioning of Turkish and European Union?s free zones has been examined. Some detailed information about free zone regimes of respectively Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland, England, Ireland, Poland, Spain and Italy is also given. In the European Union legislation, customs administration is defined as the authorized institution for free zones whereas the legislative arrangements on free zones in Turkey are made by the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade and by the Undersecretariat of Customs; Free Zones Law No. 3218 and Customs Law No. 4458 and the relevant regulations govern the free zone procedures. Even though a parallelism with the European Union legislation about free zones is provided with the Customs Law, which entered into force on February 4, 2000, in order to achieve full conformity, as stated in the National Programme, some changes need to be made, especially regarding the Free Zones Law. As a result of above given information , basic differences between the Turkish and EU?s free zones have been put forth, and some recommendations are also stated in the ?Conclusion Chapter? by being evaluated the gained data. KEY WORDS 1. Free Zones 2. The European Union Free Zone Legislation 3. The Problems Of The Free Zones In Turkey 4. Free Zones And Customs Offices