WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/L/431
7 December 2001
(01-6225)
General Council
19 December 2001Original:  English
TURKEY – PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT FOR BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
Report of the Government of Turkey under the
Decision of 8 December 20001
The following communication, dated 9 November 2001, has been received from the
Permanent Mission of Turkey.
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I. INTRODUCTION
1. On 8 December 2000 Turkey was granted a waiver from its obligations under paragraph 1 of
Article I of the GATT 1994 until 31 December 2006, to the extent necessary to permit Turkey to
provide duty-free or preferential treatment to eligible products originating in Bosnia-Herzegovinawithout being required to extend the same duty-free or preferential treatment to like products of any
other Member.
2. Under the terms of this waiver Turkey is re quired to submit to the General Council an annual
report on the implementation of the preferences and duty-free treatment afforded to eligible products
from Bosnia-Herzegovina, including the extent to which such preferences and duty-free treatment
derogate from Turkey's MFN concessions, with a view  to facilitating the annual review provided for
in paragraph 4 of Article IX of the WTO Agreement.  This report covers calendar year 2001.  Tradedata has been provided for calendar year 2000, the most recent year for which full data is available.
II. DUTY-FREE TREATMENT AFFORDED TO ELIGIBLE PRODUCTS FROM
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
3. The relevant provisions of the Decision No. 1/95 establishing the Customs Union, require
that, all the duties and import regulations of Turk ey and the European Communities are to be applied
identically.  In line with this, Turkey eliminated the duties on industrial products listed in
chapters 25-97 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of Turkey vis-à-vis Bosnia-Herzegovina on
30 June 1999.  However, for a number of sensitive products certain tariff quota limits were imposed.
2
                                                     
1 WT/L/381.
2 The products subject to tariff quotas are:  12 cat egories of textile and apparel articles which are
subject to quantitative restrictions under single-checking.   Some petroleum products, fertilisers, some articles of
plastics, articles of rubber used inside motorcars, ar ticles of apparel and clothing accessories of leather or
composition of leather, some articles of wood for furniture manufacturing, various types of footwear, a number
of iron and steel industry products, some articles of copper and aluminium, unwrought zinc, various electricalmachinery and equipment, motorcars and their trailers, fu rniture (seats, other furniture and parts thereof) and
globes.WT/L/431
Page 2
III. PERFORMANCE OF THE REGIME
4. The main objective of the regime is mainly to contribute to the economic reconstruction of
Bosnia-Herzegovina with the eventual aim of the preservation of peace in the region while fulfilling a
requirement of the EU-Turkey Customs Union.
5. Traditionally, the amount of foreign trade between Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina has not
reached a noticeable level due to the trading capacity of Bosnia-Herzegovina.  The changes in thetrade of one or two items could even double the imports or the exports while reducing them sharply in
subsequent years.  However, the progress achieved in the functioning of the regime by the last two
years operational experience, is expected to yield promising results in the forthcoming years.
6. Bosnia-Herzegovina's main export products to Turkey are:  railway or tramway locomotives
and other vehicles;  arms and ammunition and their parts;  electrical machinery and equipment and
organic chemicals as seen in Tables 1 and 2.  In 1999-2000, duty-free treatment for Bosnian exports
through tariff quotas was only utilized for motorcars (8703).
7. Statistical tables are provided to present a detailed description of the trade aspects of the
regime for the most recent period.
- Table 1 provides information on Turkey's foreign trade with Bosnia-Herzegovina
during 1997-2001, where six months figures are also given for 1999-2000.
- Table 2 provides information on the first 10 leading Turkish imports, by product
(2 Digit Description) from Bosnia-Herzegovina during 1999-2000.
- Table 3 provides information on the first 15 leading Turkish imports, by product
(6 Digit Description) from Bosnia-Herzegovina during 1999-2000.WT/L/431
Page 3TABLE 1
Turkey's Foreign Trade with Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1997-2001
(US$1,000)
YearTurkey's
imports from
Bosnia-
HerzegovinaChange over
the previous
year or the
same period
of the
previous year
%Turkey's imports
from the WorldShare of
Bosnia-
Herzegovina
in Turkey's
total imports
%Turkey's
exports to
Bosnia-
HerzegovinaChange over
the previous
year or the
same period of
the previous
year
%Turkey's exports
to the WorldShare of
Bosnia-
Herzegovina
in Turkey's
total exports
%Trade balance
(Turkey's
exports-imports
from Bosnia-
Herzegovina)
1997 1,295 48,558,721 0.003 31,87 1 26,261,072 0.121 30,576
1998 5,298 309 45,921,392 0.012 38,07 7 19 26,973,978 0.141 32,779
1999 16,222 206 40,687,270 0.040 39, 892 5 26,588,612 0.150 23,670
1999
(1st half)6,150 18,405,145 0.033 20,07 1 12,780,956 0.157 18,921
1999
(2nd half)10,072 22,282,125 0.045 19, 821 13,807,656 0.144 9,749
2000 7,497 -54 54,502,821 0.014 26, 871 -33 27,774,906 0.097 19,374
2000
(1st half)3,982 -35 25,478,651 0.016 13, 392 -33 13,806,022 0.097 9,410
2000
(2nd half)3,515 -65 29,024,169 0.012 13, 478 -32 13,968,884 0.096 9,963
2001
(1st half)1,849 -54 20,391,424 0.009 11, 526 -14 15,312,555 0.075 9,677
Source:  Official Statistics of the Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade.WT/L/431
Page 4
TABLE 2
Leading Turkish Imports by Product (2 Digit Description), from Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1999
No. Description/Chapter Value
1. 86 - Railway or tramway locomotives, rolling stock and parts thereof 6,179,344
2. 93 - Arms and ammunition, parts and accessories thereof 2,782,916
3. 87 - Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock and parts and accessories thereof 2,554,512
4. 85 - Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof 1,755,295
5. 25 - Salt, sulphur, earths and stone, plastering materials, lime and cement 513,842
6. 29 - Organic chemicals 470,182
7. 84 - Nuclear reactors, boiler and machinery 427,024
8. 72 - Iron and steel 308,908
9. 35 - Albuminoidal substances, modified starches, glues, enzymes 233,600
10. 41 - Raw hides and skins (other than furskins) and leather 224,587
Sub-Total 15,450,210
Total 16,222,090
Leading Turkish Imports, by Product (2 Digit Description), from Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2000
No Description/Chapter Value
1. 93 - Arms and ammunition, parts and accessories thereof 2,888,537
2. 85 - Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof 1,413,003
3. 41 - Raw hides and skins (other than furskins) and leather 1,151,444
4. 29 - Organic chemicals 868,673
5. 84 - Nuclear reactors, boiler and machinery 297,254
6. 72 - Iron and steel 262,619
7. 85 - Railway or tramway locomotives, rolling stock and parts thereof 268,730
8. 44 - Wood and articles of wood, wood charcoal 112,039
9. 39 - Plastics and articles thereof 94,287
10. 62 - Articles of apparel and clothing accessories not knitted or crocheted 44,934
Sub-Total 7,391,520
Total 7,497,165
Source:  Official Statistics of the Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade.WT/L/431
Page 5
TABLE 3
Leading Turkish Imports by Product (6 Digit Description), from Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1999
No. Description Value
1. 860110 - Rail locomotives powered from an external source of electricity or by electric
accumulators6,035,566
2. 870323 - Motor vehicles of cylinder capacity exceeding 1500 cm3 but not exceeding
3000 cm32,532,356
3. 930629 - Air gun pellets;  other 1,104,000
4. 930621 - Shotgun cartridges 866,000
5. 853529 - Automatic circuit breakers;  other 827,006
6. 930630 - Other cartridges and parts thereof 812,916
7. 252310 - Cement clinkers 513,842
8. 852520 - Transmission apparatus incorporating reception apparatus 500,129
9. 291714 - Maleic anhydride 462,905
10. 850164 - AC generators of an output exceeding 750 kVA 332,054
11. 720720 - Semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel containing by weight 0.25% or
more of carbon253,245
12. 350790 - Other enzymes and prepared enzymes 233,600
13. 848071 - Injection or compression types of moulds for rubber or plastics 167,456
14. 410210 - Raw skins of sheep or lambs with wool on 139,378
15. 860719 - Parts of railway or tramway locomotives or rolling-stock;  other, including parts 128,140
Sub-Total 14,908,593
Total 16,222,090
Leading Turkish Imports, by Product (6 Digit Description), from Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2000
No Description Value
1. 930630 - Other cartridges and parts thereof 1,666,537
2. 930629 - Air gun pellets;  other 893,000
3. 291714 - Maleic anhydride 858,008
4. 410210 - Raw skins of sheep or lambs with wool on 580,795
5. 410519 - Sheep or lamb skin leather without wool on;  other 404,053
6. 853529 - Automatic circuit breakers 382,447
7. 930690 - Cartridges and munitions of military weapons 329,000
8. 853521 - Automatic circuit breakers for a voltage of less than 72.5 kVA 277,722
9. 722490 - Other alloy steel in ingots or other primary forms;  semi-finished products of
other alloy steel;  other254,065
10. 860719 - Parts of railway or tramway locomotives or rolling-stock;  other, including parts 246,621
11. 850431 - Other transformers having a power handling capacity exceeding 16 kVA but not
exceeding 500 kVA241,718
12. 850431 - Other transformers having a power handling capacity not exceeding 1 kVA 177,378
13. 410121 - Skins of bovine animals:  whole, fresh or well-salted 131,978
14. 854590 - Other carbon articles used for electrical purposes 103,651
15. 392340 - Spools, caps, bobbins and similar supports of plastics 94,287
Sub-Total 6,641,260
Total 7,497,165
Source:  Official Statistics of the Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade.
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