Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Member Cengiz Günay stated that there are important issues for the development of the sector on the agenda of the meeting and emphasized that the decisions to be taken will be followed up for implementation.

Council President Alp Önder Özpamukçu thanked the members for their participation in the meeting, which was attended by a large audience, and gave a brief briefing on the developments since the most recent meeting.

Emphasizing that it is necessary to inspect the marketplaces and make arrangements to prevent the sale of counterfeit products, the Council members mentioned the importance of writing the stone characteristics clearly in the certificates issued in the jewelry sector, and stated that it is necessary to issue after-sales certificates, especially in tourism regions, and to make an arrangement on the clear determination of the contents of the stones.

Addressing the deposit system, which is one of the most important issues of the sector recently, the Members addressed the uncertainties for restaurant and food service chains and forwarded their requests to the Public representatives to delay the implementation date of the deposit system.

Industry representatives, who said that the condition for benefiting from the 5-point premium reduction changed in the SSI Circular no. 2021/26 dated July, stated that even for other businesses throughout Turkey that do not owe money in any workplace file according to the regulation, 5 points of support cannot be used, and stated that public initiatives should be taken to change the condition for benefiting from such support.

Members said that it is regulated to share vaccine and Covid test information with the workplaces, but the method and method of implementation are not clearly stated, and they mentioned the importance of clarifying what the sanctions will be for employees who do not provide the information and refrain from it, what the employer should do in such a case, and what measures can be taken regarding non-vaccinated employees.

Members also mentioned that the sector will suffer if unfair price controls, which are of great importance for the sector, extend beyond basic necessities, and that the issue should be limited for the product groups specified in the published Regulation.

Members, who said in previous meetings that temporary exorbitant freight prices were applied in import taxation due to the pandemic, and that there was no positive return from the Public to the requests for temporary and short-term freight prices to be charged at FOB price, not CIF price, said that another request was that transactions could be carried out at a reference price.

Burak Kaplan, head of the Retail Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce General Directorate of Internal Trade, who was invited to the meeting regarding the agenda items, answered the questions from the Members.