ICI Chairman Bahçıvan: "Trust-based past performance should be the criteria for Companies at Customs"

• 23.07.2014
• News

The Board of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) held its July meeting today, highlighting its main topic, "Latest Developments in our Commercial Life and in our Economy in terms of the Competitive Power of our Industry." Touching upon the human drama that is unfolding on the Gaza Strip and expressing his hopes that this tragedy would end as soon as possible, Minister of Customs and Trade Hayati Yazıcı said that the Ministry was searching for a new location in the region of Thrace to facilitate customs procedures in Istanbul. He said that these efforts would be translated into actuality soon.

Making the opening remarks at the meeting, ICI Chairman Erdal Bahçıvan stressed that the problems experienced at customs had a negative impact on the competitive power of industrialists. Bahçıvan called attention to the human pain and tragedy taking place in Palestine, warning that the spiral of violence was growing steadily over a span that reached out from Iraq to Yemen, from Syria to Libya, from Palestine to Afghanistan, from Ukraine to Somalia.

Making a point of how the industry was being challenged by the congestion experienced at the harbors and customs gates in Istanbul, Bahçıvan voiced his support of the transfer of the Halkalı customs office to Çatalca, a move that was thought to be a solution to the problem, and continued to say, "The Çatalca customs office project, I feel, is a step in the right direction and we want this project to be concluded as quickly as possible," Bahçıvan emphasized how slow approval processes were and spoke of the breakdowns in the data processing system, stating that all of this was forcing industrialists to pay overtime fees and that the "Authorized Obligor" practice would contribute to solving the problem. Bahçıvan said, "However, considering the arduous conditions surrounding this practice, it would be useful to introduce a past performance application as an alternative in an effort to prevent backlogs at the customs offices and help industrialists avoid paying overtime fees."

Deterrent Measures Needed in Imports

Pointing out that customs offices were the most important barriers in protecting industrialists from unfair competition, Bahçıvan proposed that inspections performed with the cooperation of TSE and other public authorities on substandard import products, particularly from the Far East, would have a deterrent effect. Also mentioning other problems related to customs, Bahçıvan said the following:

"The minimum wage schedule for customs consultants brings our companies importing intermediary and capital goods an additional financial burden. To protect the competitive power of our industry, as before, we believe it would be best to allow wages to be determined under free market conditions. To prevent the regulations on the Protection of the Consumer coming into force in May 2014 from putting the market into deadlock or from standing in the way of trade, market surveillance auditing must be practiced effectively. If this is not done, the new Law will not protect the consumer but instead only serve to develop the unrecorded and unregistered economy."

Also pointing out that the NACE system was of great importance to industry but that there were certain problems in the application of the common codes developed with the Ministry, Bahçıvan continued to say, "Let it be rest assured that we will fulfill our duty in working with the Ministry to revise the NACE and grouping system in the direction of company expectations. The efforts in this context have resulted in the accumulation of a data bank that many will benefit from. It will be very useful, under the guidance of our Ministry, to structure a network so that the data of the Finance Ministry, SGK (Social Security Administration), the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, TOBB and the information related to the Chambers can be used freely and a common database can be implemented."

The Continuation of the Tragedy in Palestine will Increase Violence in the Region

Bahçıvan called attention to the chaos in the Middle East, warning that the continuation of the human pain and tragedy in Palestine was creating a spiral of violence that was growing steadily over a span that reached out from Iraq to Yemen, from Syria to Libya, from Palestine to Afghanistan, from Ukraine to Somalia. Bahçıvan continued: "Because of the disproportionate wielding of power in Palestine, it is the most natural right of every person with a conscience to react to Israel. As İSO, we invite everyone to act responsibly, secure a ceasefire at the soonest, and ensure the transport of emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza."

Offering an assessment of Türkiye's economic performance, Bahçıvan pointed to the fact that there had been a relatively positive outlook in the first half of the year, but that this was followed by a relative slowing-down trend in industrial production. Bahçıvan continued to say that the 5.7 percent fall in the production of capital goods was particularly striking. He said that the fact that capital goods production had receded to its lowest level of the year suggested a negative picture in the months ahead in terms of investments. In the light of the data accumulated in the first half of the year and the expectations about the second six months, he said that it looked like calculating a growth of around 3.5 percent for 2014 would be a reasonable estimate.