While diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States of Europe are growing weaker by the day, trade relations continue to increase in inverse proportion. The percentage of Turkey's exports to European countries has increased up to 50%. The country with the highest number of exports from Turkey to European countries is Germany. Turkey-European Union relations, which have almost come to a standstill in terms of diplomatic relations in the past years, are developing day by day from a commercial point of view. In February, exports to the European Union, Turkey's largest export market, accounted for 50% of total global exports. The top three export destinations were Germany with 1.5 billion dollars, Italy with 880 million dollars and the United Kingdom (UK) with 878 million dollars. All of the tradesmen and businesses that want to export are mainly aiming to increase profits and also want the brand or service to have a global prestige and recognition. Today Topdov will show you how you can export to European countries and how you can have a global customer portfolio.

What is Exporting?

Export, also known as "export", is the sale of products, goods and services produced within the borders of a country to another country in accordance with the export and customs legislation in the constitution and receiving a price in return. Export is one of the basic structural elements of a country's foreign trade. The more the total exports of a country exceed the total imports of that country, the higher the ratio of exports to imports, the lower the current account deficit of that country. Countries provide foreign exchange inflows to their own countries by exporting products, goods and services that are produced in their domestic markets and have a high competitive power in the markets of foreign countries to meet the demand in foreign countries. They play a major role in maintaining the balance in order to keep the country's foreign trade scales in balance.

What are the Types of Exports?

1. Pre-Authorized Export: It is the export of products, goods and services whose export is subject to prior authorization according to local and international operating legislation.

2. Free Export: Exports of products whose export is prohibited or does not require a special permit. Almost 70% of Turkey's exports fall under the free export category.

3. Registered Exports: It covers all products, goods or services included in the list of goods subject to registration published by the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade. It covers exports that are approved and registered by the general secretariat of customs declarations and exporters' unions and transmitted to customs administrations within 29-30 days.

4. Export on Credit: It covers the payment of the export price of the exported product in accordance with a payment plan. In order to realize export on credit, it is a type of export that requires permission to be obtained by requesting permission to the general secretariat of exporters' unions together with the payment plan, the intermediary bank's letter of credit approved by the bank or the sales contract.

5. Export of Imported Goods: It is the export of imported goods that are imported and sold in the country's own market or used goods, products or services and imported goods that are formalized within the scope of "inward processing".  

6. Consignment Export: It is the sending of samples or parts of the products to be exported to potential buyers in the countries to be exported, to the exporter's branch, brokers or representative offices abroad. Consignment export applications made to the General Secretariat of the Exporters' Association are evaluated only by the General Secretariat of the Exporters' Association for the goods that are not within the framework of the regulation after the opinions and feedbacks of the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade are received for the products or goods within the framework of the regulation. "Consignment Export" is stamped on the customs declaration.

7. Exports in Free Zones: Exports in the regions considered as duty-free areas are within the scope of foreign trade between the free zone and the points within the country and are subject to export legislation.

8. Free Export: It is called sending products or goods abroad without any charge. Sample products sent free of charge, target parts included in the scope of the warranty, gifts, promotional goods and advertisements taken or sent by individuals, promotional goods and advertising, goods to be taken or sent by people from foreign countries serving in Turkey, vehicles, goods or products to be sent by public institutions and organizations or in accordance with their agreements, exports of humanitarian aid materials to be sent by foundations or associations working for the benefit of the public in disaster situations are included in the scope of free exports.

9. Exports by Barter or Tied Transactions: Barter transactions between more than two countries where the price of the goods or products to be exported or imported between two countries is partially or fully covered by the transfer of products, services, goods or technological transfer is called a tied transaction. In order to realize this type of export, which requires equal mutual payment obligations on both sides, it is mandatory to obtain permission from the Exporters' Associations.

10. Transit Trade: It is the sale of goods or products in transit or directly from one country to another, provided that there is no difference between the purchase and sale prices. Products or goods that are not deemed suitable for transit trade according to the legislation cannot be exported through transit trade. Transit trade cannot be made to countries where import and export is prohibited.

11. Export through Commercial Leasing: Exports realized through leasing are sent temporarily to buyers in foreign countries and free zones in return for a certain rental fee without actual exports. In the case of exports made through commercial leasing, the lease period is determined as 3 years maximum. In special cases, the period can be extended. In case of actual exports, the actual price of the sale is brought to the country according to the foreign exchange legislation. Permission must be obtained by applying to the Exporters' Associations with a commercial leasing agreement containing information such as the type, quantity, unit price, total value, lease period, lease price in TL or foreign currency.

12. Border Trade: Border trade for the development of trade with countries in border regions is also within the scope of exports. Companies located in provinces that are deemed suitable for border trade and have a suitable location carry out border trade by obtaining a border trade certificate from the governorship.

Exporting to Member Countries of the European Union
The customs union between Turkey and the European Union can be defined as an economic integration in which new customs tariffs are applied to countries outside the European Union. In the aforementioned integration model, we can say that with the customs union, industrial products circulate freely between the parties. Co-effective taxes, housing fund and customs duties were completely abolished for the import of industrial products originating from the European Union. Imports of industrial products from Third World countries are subject to a common customs tariff agreed by the communities. Agricultural products and processed agricultural products are included in the customs union.

In the export of agricultural products and processed agricultural products, the industrial share and the agricultural share are applied for processed agricultural products with Third World countries of origin in accordance with the systematic and structured legislation. There are certain documents for the export of products realized within the framework of the European Union. One of these is the EUR.1 document. The EUR.1 certificate is only issued within the export of agricultural products. A.TR circulation document is prepared in order for goods, products and services to benefit from the concessions that the parties mutually recognize each other in the exports between the European Union and Turkey. This type of document is issued only for products, goods and services that are sent from Turkey to the European Union countries or vice versa from the European Union to Turkey.

In order to prepare the aforementioned documents, it is absolutely necessary to specify all necessary / unnecessary details of the product, service and goods. The documents of the products and goods to be transported abroad may also differ within themselves. For example, if the transfer of the products transported to customs will be carried out by sea or by air, then a bill of lading should be prepared for the products and goods transported. However, if the transportation is to be carried out by land, the bill of lading is not prepared and the CMR document is prepared instead of the bill of lading document. It is vitally important to prepare appropriate documents according to the product or goods to be transported abroad. Transportation documents should be prepared professionally by logistics companies, not by yourself. After having your documents prepared by your logistics companies, you should make sure that all information about the product or your company is correct. Therefore, it is useful to check your information!

Documents Required for Export

In order for the export to be realized, the following export documents must be issued by the exporter company.

Invoice It is issued in Turkish and English for the products to be exported.

Certificate of Origin: The certificate of origin showing in which country the products are produced is obtained from the Chamber of Commerce.

Check List: In case of exporting more than one product, the product list prepared in Turkish and English shall be attached to the customs declaration.

Bill of Lading Instruction: It is the loading document given to the carrier company.

Bill of Lading/CMR/Airway Bill: It is the transportation document issued by the carrier company. Transportation documents made by sea, land and air are called bill of lading, CMR and airbill respectively.  

What Should Be Considered When Exporting Abroad? 1. Analyzing Market Research: The plan of the product to be exported is usually very weak as market research. Market research is the research of the exporter who will export abroad to investigate to what extent and in what demand the product will be sold / not sold in a particular market. This research is based on feedback from consumers about the direct quality, design, size, color and other structural features of the product, and as a result of surveys and studies on consumer groups selected from the countries where exports will be made, samples of the product or goods are sent to the market of the country to be exported and the specific preferences of potential customers are often learned by researching.

2. Marketing: Exporters who will export abroad for the first time are generally exporters who show passive behaviors rather than active exports. This is because they usually export only because someone from the exporting country has contacted them. Many exporters export passively because they are not aware of the opportunities that global marketing offers them.

3. Conduct a Perfect Market Research: The researcher company that will conduct the market research can access all the information required for the research, such as sector-specific export potential, product and country information, product and country-specific export statistics and trends related to emerging markets, addresses, telephone information, e-mail addresses of foreign companies and importers who want to buy a certain product or goods, from which product, from which sector, how many they want to import, all this information can be found on Topdov.

We are here for you to reach the right contacts for your sector through Topdov and to establish the right contacts for your exports in the simplest and easiest way without paying additional fees to intermediary companies! You can contact us to reach customer information so that you can export to European countries with us, topdov always provides the right contacts for you!