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Turkey denies reports of import ban on Russian wheat

normangeestar.net

Turkey has been implementing a liberal foreign trade policy in full accordance with rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as opposed to some reports in the media about Russian goods, according to Ministry of Economy Friday.

“Turkey from March 15 suspended the issuance of licenses for duty-free supplies of wheat, corn and sunflower meal from a number of countries, but primarily, this relates to a key supplier of Russia”, General Director of the Institute for agricultural market studies Dmitry Rylko said.

This would effectively close off the Turkish market to Russian wheat as exports from countries not included in the import scheme have to pay a prohibitive tariff of 130 percent, several sources said.

The ministry has added country information in tax-free import licences but does not aim to ban any supplier or any product, it said in a statement without referring to specific products.

According to the allegation, which has not been confirmed by the official authorities yet, Turkey has levied a 130 percent tax on certain products, including wheat, corn, and sunflower oil and thus started to restrict the import of these products from Russian Federation.

“There isn’t a formal note on this but Russian Federation is no longer on the list of countries from which we could import tax-free”. The Agricultural and Customs Ministries had no immediate comment.

“I think the situation should normalise now”, he said.

Turkey bought 1.9 million tonnes of Russian wheat from July 2016 to January 2017.

“No, it cannot [influence]”, Kremlin’s spokesperson said responding to a question whether introduction of duties on Russian wheat and corn by Turkey can affect the process of normalizing relations between Moscow and Ankara.

A Russian exporters’ lobby, the National Association of Agriculture Exporters, sent a letter to Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev on Thursday asking him “to take energetic measures” to resolve the matter.

http://normangeestar.net/2017/03/18/turkey-denies-reports-of-import-ban-on-russian-wheat/

20.03.17

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