Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The meeting was attended by İbrahim Gür, Deputy General Director of the General Directorate of Economic Programs and Research of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, Burak Kaplan, Head of the Retail Trade Department of the Ministry of Trade, and experts from the Department of E-Commerce and Vegetable and Fruit Trade.

TOBB Board Member Cengiz Günay, who is responsible for the Council, stated that a busy summer period was left behind and thanked the Council for its diligent work.

Council President Alp Önder Özpamukçu shared the developments since the last Council meeting and stated that steps will be taken in public-private sector cooperation to solve the problems of the sector.

Referring to the elimination of the problems experienced in the supplier financing system, the Members stated that the Communiqué on the Amendment of the Communiqué on the Establishment of Turkish Lira-Denominated Securities for Foreign Currency Obligations of the Central Bank entered into force in August 2022, and according to this decision, banks are obliged to allocate securities depending on the coefficient imposed on interest rates in new loans they will issue. With this arrangement, supplier loans were stopped or high service fee applications were seen in addition to the interest offered, and the importance of reviewing said decision was mentioned.

Stating that the work on the sub-legislation of the Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce, which is important for the sector, continues, the Council Members touched on the importance of preparing the opinions on the studies quickly and forwarding them to the Ministry of Commerce.

Touching on the problems related to customs and exports, Council Members discussed the restriction of the use of vehicles with foreign license plates in transit trade, the problem of warehouse declarations during the evacuation phase in import trucks and queues at border gates.

Referring to the KVKK issue, which is an important issue for the sector, the Members expressed their suggestions on explicit consent and the ETK process with the representatives of the Public.

Sector representatives, who addressed the necessity of cold cabinets with the State Law, conveyed the postponement and flexibility requests in the said application to the Ministry authorities and shared the information that they could contribute to the work.

In addition, Council Members expressed with sensitivity that the sector will have great difficulty with the implementation of the geographical data permit and that it is essential to arrange the license obligation with retail exemption.