TURKEY: IMPORT SAFETY DIALOGUE STARTED

UNCLAS ANKARA 002179 SIPDIS USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/CRUSNAK USDA/FAS FOR OSTA/RMACKE, CSLOOP USDA/FAS FOR OCRA/RCURTIS, JFLEMINGS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR ECON ETRD TBIO TU SUBJECT: TURKEY: IMPORT SAFETY DIALOGUE STARTED Ref: A) STATE 114788 B) GAIN report TU7048 ¶1. We delivered ref A information to Ziya Altunyaldiz, Deputy Director General for Exports, and Kadir Bal, Deputy Director General for Imports, at the Turkish Foreign Trade Undersecretariat. Neither had substantive comments at this time but assured us they would review it. We will include this topic in the next Turkey-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council meeting, currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2008 in Ankara. ¶2. Ankara's Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) office prepares a yearly report that deals with this topic, entitled "Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards" (ref B). In this report, they note that the regulations on food and agricultural products are generally prepared and published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA). However, there are also regulations published by other ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health. Most Turkish agriculture-related regulations, laws, communiques, directives, and notifications are available on the website of the Protection and Control General Directorate (GDPC) of MARA: www.kkgm.gov.tr. A few of the regulations have an English translation available on the same website. ¶3. The legal infrastructure of agriculture is mainly based on communiques rather than on laws. The reason for this is that the Turkish constitutional system does not allow laws to be adopted, amended or abolished easily. Therefore governments have traditionally preferred to publish communiques. Currently, the main target of Turkish food and agriculture policy is to harmonize the related laws and regulations with the EU acquis communitaire. Sometimes it appears that this concern overwhelms other concerns such as national interest and farmers' interests. Moreover, the Turkish government rarely informs the public or international bodies such as the WTO about possible or actual regulation changes. In addition, the same regulations can often be inconsistently applied in different provincial directorates and at different times. MCELDOWNEY