In January, the Ministry of Trade of Turkey has requested safeguard measures within the WTO regulations regarding imports of corrugated case material, mainly from Europe.
The investigation, initiated upon application from domestic producers, is referring to a number of testliner, fluting and semi-chemical grades. The application maintains that imports of these papers have increased in absolute and relative terms, causing serious damage to domestic suppliers. Imports of these papers in the first six months of 2023 increased by 135 per cent compared to the same period four years ago, raising the import share from 100 in 2019 to 132 in 2022, it is said.
In a comment on the initiative, the Confederation of Paper Industries (Cepi) said that the stringent conditions necessary for imposing safeguard measures in the current investigation are not met. The WTO standards required to impose measures are extremely high and should only applied in exceptional circumstances as a "last resort", Cepi told Euwid. Cepi is therefore of the opinion the Ministry of Trade should terminate this safeguard investigation without delay.
According to the WTO regulations, possible measures would imply the restriction on imports of a product temporarily.
The origin of the imports referred to are mainly coming from Germany, Poland, Israel and Finland, which have a share of 55 per cent in the imports during 2019-2023, according to the application from the Paper Recycling Industrialists Assocation AGED in Turkey. Other top importing countries in Europe on the association's list include Italy, Sweden, Slovakia, Romania and France.
