Country of unlimited customs – Newspaper Kommersant No. 40 (7485) dated 03/10/2023
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Turkey was the first of the major “friendly” trade partners of the Russian Federation to close the possibility of transit of sanctioned goods to Russia – temporarily or, which Kommersant’s interlocutors consider more likely, on a permanent basis. There have been no official clarifications from the country’s authorities, but Turkish market participants explain the situation as pressure from the EU. Logisticians have long expected the closure of the transit scheme, while the import of sanctioned goods will not be completely closed – it will only rise in price, since now the cargo will have to be cleared through customs with payment of all taxes and fees, registered as Turkish and transported to Russia.
Turkey has closed the transit scheme for goods of sanctions categories for Russia. “Turkish customs authorities on the night of March 6-7 began to reject transit declarations for goods that are on the EU sanctions list and are transported to the territory of Russia and the Republic of Belarus, referring to the government’s order,” says Yury Davar, head of Novelco’s sales department. “But, according to our information, the orders of the official bodies were not announced.”
“I would like to clearly define the essence of the issue: for goods with non-sanctioned TNVED codes, transit through Turkey is possible, their export from Turkey to Russia is also possible,” emphasizes Dmitry Arzhanykh, co-founder of the SLK group. “But sending transit cargo with sanctioned TNVED codes is impossible.”
According to unofficial information, he says, operations on sanctioned cargo to Russia are blocked at the Turkish Central Customs Administration in Ankara.
A source among importers of power plants says that it is impossible to enter Russia in the customs database when certain TNVED codes are re-exported, and that only transit is prohibited, that is, it is possible to clear customs and transport further. According to the founder of VIG Trans, Igor Rebelsky, at the moment, when registering codes, it is impossible to select the country of destination of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus in the customs system of Turkey. Georgy Vlastopulo, CEO of the Optimalog logistics company, claims that since March 8, the Turkish authorities have banned the supply of any products to the Russian Federation, except for those produced domestically. “The registration of transit declarations for sea and air cargo in the Russian Federation from Turkey is blocked,” he says.
All logisticians and foreign trade participants interviewed by Kommersant emphasize that there were no official notifications. “Our Turkish partners inform us that if an official decision were made, an announcement would first be made,” says Yuriy Davar. President of the customs and logistics broker KBT Yulia Shlenskaya believes that official clarifications from the authorities are unlikely to follow. “Confirmation of the position would mean that before they held a position of a slightly different nature, which they, as Eastern people who want to earn money and not quarrel with anyone, cannot afford,” she believes.
System level barriers
Turkish partners of Russian importers explain what is happening with pressure from the EU. Yulia Shlenskaya says that the message of their Turkish counterparty says: “There are no legal restrictions on transit to Russia. However, there are obstacles at the level of the electronic system. We, as customs brokers, are trying to conduct a dialogue with the representative office of the Ministry of Customs, but there is no answer yet.”
The Turkish counterpart assumes that the situation “arose as a result of EU pressure on Turkey regarding the transit of European goods, and it is temporary.”
Another interlocutor also speaks of a notification from the Turkish side that “there is serious pressure from the Europeans” trying to stop transit through Turkey to Russia. Yuri Davar heard from his counterparties that, most likely, we are talking about blocking transit by the EU customs authorities, with which Turkey has a single customs system.
“In 2022, Turkey has become the largest transport hub for sanctioned goods destined for Russia, including parallel imports,” says Kirill Latinsky, commercial director of SOTA Logistic. “It is obvious that the impossibility of opening transit declarations to Russia is directly related to pressure from Western countries, especially the United States.” .
Yulia Shlenskaya also says that she heard about the version according to which this situation is the subject of bargaining for the extension of the grain deal. Her term ends on March 15, and Russia is not eager to extend it. But three interlocutors of Kommersant on the market believe that Turkey simply wants to make even more money on Russian transit. “They want VAT and other fees and charges on operations,” says one of them.
Four days plus VAT
Some of Kommersant’s interlocutors believe that the problem can be solved after some time and is of a technical nature – they talk about software updates and problems exclusively at the level of the Turkish NCTS information system. However, the majority believes that the closure of the transit scheme will become permanent. So far, there is only one way out – to clear the cargo in Turkey, make a Turkish certificate of origin and send the cargo to Russia, says Igor Rebelsky. “Everything goes through as usual customs clearance, nothing extra has been asked yet,” he says. “It takes three to four days, no more, plus VAT (18%).”
In general, logisticians expected such a turn of events. The blocking of transits was a matter of time, says Delko CEO Sanjar Ashuraliev.
According to Yulia Shlenskaya, last year, when the company was just starting to work with the Turkish stream, an interlocutor with 30 years of experience in the local customs system warned that sooner or later deliveries to the Russian Federation would be equalized with deliveries to Iran and they would have to be cleared through customs, paying taxes and fees. “Iran lived like this for many years, everyone knows about it very well,” she says. “Local analysts gave forecasts from six months to a year before we come to the need to clear goods and, in fact, Turkey will earn even more from this.”
Most likely, the next step of the country’s authorities will be a complete ban at the legislative level on the re-export of goods from Western sanctions packages to Russia, Kirill Latinsky believes: “If the dynamics of events turn out to be like this, then we will certainly see an increase in transit delivery times and a significant increase in the cost of goods in Russia “. The consequences for the transport industry will be negative, Sanjar Ashuraliev agrees: this is another rise in prices, including spare parts, which will lead to an increase in the cost of goods and services.
The tablet will go around
According to Giorgi Vlastopulo, the monthly transit of goods through Turkey can be $200-400 million. The main goods supplied are small household appliances and electronics, food, clothing, spare parts, says Yuri Davar. According to TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov, up to 20% of deliveries of smartphones, tablets, laptops and other electronics through parallel imports came from Turkey. “Most likely, distributors will start moving their channels to countries that are not yet closed, like the UAE and China, but this will take some time,” he said.
Mr. Kuskov noted that if the Turkish authorities do not allow the export of goods to the Russian Federation, then after the stocks in the warehouses of Russian distributors run out, some electronics may be in short supply.
The interlocutor of “Kommersant” among the suppliers confirmed the problems with deliveries through Turkey. According to him, the incidents began at the end of December, and now they have become widespread. “Importers of electronics, who carried it through Turkey using parallel imports, will start looking for workarounds, which will take time,” the Kommersant source explains.
Kommersant reported in the aviation industry that some carriers also “resolved some of the issues with spare parts through Turkey.” Such players, according to him, were not numerous, since the most common supply channels pass through China, India, Iran and the CIS.
Turkey is an important logistics hub for Russian auto parts importers, adds Alexander Nosko, Service Director for the Fresh Auto dealership network. “However, China remains the main supplier of spare parts to the Russian Federation, mainly plastic bumpers, tanks, containers were imported from Turkey, and in terms of imports of components, the country ranked 10th in 2021 with an indicator of $1.32 billion,” he says.— Of course, the situation negatively affects the market, where there is still some shortage of consumables, but there should not be any irreversible consequences from Turkey’s decision, since there are alternative supply channels.”
From the point of view of the supply of spare parts, Turkey was “not the main, but a volume-forming channel,” confirms the press service of the Avtodom Group of Companies: “Now we will quickly decide with our logistics partners how to change supply routes.”
Not all importers are experiencing supply disruptions so far.
“Currently, we are not facing problems in the supply of spare parts,” says Ekaterina Nevskaya, Director of the Spare Parts and Corporate Procurement Department at Rolf, “Despite some delays due to the redistribution of logistics routes due to the recent disaster in the country, we have We have the necessary volume of spare parts for full-fledged customer service. One of the ways to resolve the issue, in particular, with spare parts, may be to continue the localization of production in Turkey, China and other countries, Sanjar Ashuraliev believes. As an alternative to Turkey, Yuri Davar says, one can consider the countries of the Middle East, for example, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Kazakhstan and Armenia.
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