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*The Turkish glass industry wants measures to be expanded to protect domestic production against imports that create unequal competition and these measures should also cover imports within the scope of the Inward Processing Regime (DIR).
Representatives of the Turkish glass industry, which exports to more than 170 countries in its 90th year with a production and processing capacity of over 4 million tonnes, came together hosted by the Cement, Glass, Ceramic and Soil Products Exporters' Association (ÇCSİB). The ongoing situation of the sector, risks, opportunities, solution proposals and future targets were discussed at the meeting organised with the participation of public, sector and company representatives, especially Tansu Kumru, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of ÇCSİB, and Mehmet Ali Kılıçkaya, General Director of Export of the Ministry of Trade.
Tansu Kumru who stated that the Turkish glass industry is one of the leading sectors that reduces Türkiye's current account deficit with a domestic value added ratio of 79 percent, said that the protectionism applied by the USA to Asian countries, especially China, not only enables our country to grow in the US market, but also brings a great risk because countries such as China, Malaysia and Vietnam, which cannot turn to the US market, will turn to Türkiye and Europe, which is Türkiye's main export market. Kumru said ‘If we do not take the obligatory protectionism measures, these countries, which we have difficulty in competing with due to their low-cost production, can enter not only our export markets but also our domestic market.’. Stating that in order to eliminate this risk, in addition to long-term measures such as anti-dumping, it is of great importance to increase additional taxes and surveillance fees that give quick results and to introduce new measures if necessary, Kumru added, ‘We demand that the protectionism measures applied against imports that create unfair competition should also be applied to imports made within the scope of the Inward Processing Regime (DIR). Because the current DIR application puts our manufacturers operating in the fields of white goods glass and glass fibre in a difficult situation.’
Finally, Tansu Kumru, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of ÇCSİB, who expressed that they are in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, mentioned that we have the capacity to meet 100 percent of our country's glass need, so there is no capacity deficiency that would require us to import glass from China and other countries.
