2026 Product Safety Communiqués: The Import Control Map

In Türkiye, import controls for product safety are drawn by the family of product safety and inspection communiqués published in the Official Gazette every December and entering into force at the start of the new year. These communiqués assemble, in a single map, which GTİP codes fall under inspection, which technical regulation each product family must comply with, and what the importer must do before the customs declaration. The map is redrawn every year: GTİP codes are added to or removed from the annexes, the referenced technical regulations are updated, and application practice is clarified through ministry announcements. The most fundamental risk of an import programme is missing this annual renewal; a product outside scope last year may have entered the list this year. This article explains how to read the 2026 communiqué family, the GTİP logic of the annexes, the distribution across product families, and how the map connects to the TAREKS application and the customs flow. Examples are drawn from clinical research and regulated product imports; the rules are common to all products in scope.

Who is this for?

This guide is for every party importing products covered by the product safety communiqués. Retail and e-commerce procurement teams must refresh product-by-product scope tables at the start of the year; a newly scoped item affects supply contracts and labelling plans. Clinical research teams and CROs should clarify the scope status of equipment and consumables to be brought for site use during protocol preparation. Customs brokers and depot operations reflect communiqué changes into the declaration flow. Manufacturer representatives and distributors must carry updates in the referenced technical regulations back to the manufacturer's file. Quality and regulatory units own the annual change management: which product was affected, which document was renewed, which GTİP was corrected; the recorded answers to these questions form the backbone of the defence in an audit. Finance teams are affected too; for scoped products, the probability of control and the associated waiting cost enter pricing.

Which products does it cover?

The communiqué family covers a spectrum stretching from consumer safety to industrial equipment. Typical families are: toys and childcare articles; electrical household appliances, lighting and electronic devices; textile, leather and footwear products; personal protective equipment; machinery, pressure equipment and gas-burning appliances; construction materials; packaging and food-contact materials; chemical preparations and cleaning products; and groups with their own dedicated communiqué, such as medical devices. Each communiqué lists the GTİP codes in scope in its annex and references the technical regulation the product must satisfy. A GTİP can appear in a single communiqué or, depending on the product's nature, in the annexes of several. Scope reading must therefore be product-centred: extract the candidate GTİP codes, search each one across all current annexes, and determine the set of communiqués matching the product's physical and functional nature. An unlisted code does not always mean out of scope; borderline products may require interpretation, and that interpretation must itself be documented.

When does it apply?

Map reading is done in the import preparation of every scoped product, but certain moments become critical. The start of the year is the period when the entire product portfolio must be re-screened against the new communiqué annexes. Before starting to supply a new product, its GTİP and scope status must be settled. On supplier or origin changes, scope may stay the same while the application of the technical regulation shifts; the same product may arrive under a manufacturer certificate from a different country. On product revisions, a change in nature can shift the GTİP and therefore the scope. Temporary imports, fair goods and sample shipments alter the scope assessment and engage exemption conditions. In post-clearance controls or market surveillance, the scope question is asked again; what applies is not the communiqué versions known until that day but the annexes in force at the transaction date. Map reading is thus not a one-off project but a control step repeated in every shipment file.

Legal framework and authority

The framework rests on the law governing the preparation and application of technical legislation on products and on the council of ministers decision concerning technical regulations and standardization in foreign trade; the annual communiqués are the application instruments of that framework. The communiqués are published as a family: a separate communiqué is issued for each product group, with annexes containing GTİP lists and references to technical regulations, and the whole family is published in the Official Gazette in December of the preceding year to enter into force at the start of the year. The 2026 period communiqués follow the same calendar; announcements and current annexes are tracked on the pages of the ministry's product safety unit. The competent authority is the Ministry of Trade; scope control runs through TAREKS, technical assessment is performed by the units at customs, and for special product groups the registration or permit processes of other institutions are joined in. Verifying communiqué texts and annexes from official sources is mandatory; third-party summaries may be outdated.

Step-by-step process

1. At the start of the year, extract the GTİP list of your entire product portfolio from the classification files and screen it against the current communiqué annexes.
2. Record the scope result for each product in a table: which communiqué, which technical regulation, which evidence set.
3. For newly scoped items, open a document request with the supplier; for de-scoped items, update your dossier but keep the records.
4. Translate the referenced technical regulations into the manufacturer file: test parameters, label content, conformity assessment programme.
5. Align your TAREKS application templates with the new annexes; check the guiding documents per product group.
6. Cross-check the scope table with your customs broker and keep disagreements in writing.
7. Reflect scope changes in labels, packaging and marketing materials; verify the mandatory Turkish-language information.
8. Create the change-management record: affected products, actions taken, dates and owners.
9. Keep monitoring communiqué amendments and ministry announcements during the year; keep the table alive.

Document checklist

• GTİP list of the product portfolio with classification rationale.
• Product-by-product copies of the current year's communiqué annex pages.
• Scope table: product, GTİP, communiqué, technical regulation, evidence set.
• Technical regulation texts and, where present, the harmonised standards list.
• Manufacturer declarations of conformity, current and matching product versions.
• Test reports and certificates, including those renewed after scope changes.
• Label and instruction samples, with the mandatory Turkish-language information.
• Supplier correspondence and document request records.
• Change-management record and responsibility table.
• Previous year's table, with comparison and lessons-learned notes.

Parties and responsibilities

The responsibility matrix must be written, and the year-start exercise must be owned as an annual cycle rather than a one-off project. The cost of a scope error mostly lands on the importer; even if the broker reads the annexes differently, keeping the product file current is the importer's duty.

Exceptions and edge cases

The edges of the map can be confusing. The presence of a GTİP in an annex does not mean every product under that position automatically catches inspection; annexes can contain descriptions about product nature and exception notes. Conversely, an unlisted GTİP is not always safe; the product's nature may point to another position or fall under a special communiqué. In borderline products, for instance items that are both toy and ornament, or suitable for both medical and general use, interpretations can diverge; there, the most comprehensive technical regulation governs and, where necessary, a separate assessment is made under each communiqué. Clinical trial products, personal-use consignments, fair goods and samples relate to exemption mechanisms; an exemption, however, is conditional recognition, not absence of scope. During the annual transition, which year's communiqués apply to a shipment loaded at the end of December is assessed within the entry-into-force rules and the transaction date.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is continuing to use last year's annexes; the scope lists are renewed annually. The second is running the GTİP screening on exact matches only, skipping the description lines and exception notes in the annexes. The third is grounding the scope decision in the sales team's product description; the criterion is technical nature. The fourth is never informing the supplier about a communiqué change, leaving manufacturer documents compliant with the old regulation. The fifth is updating the scope table but not the TAREKS application templates; the application is rejected or delayed on an outdated communiqué selection. The sixth is keeping no change-management record; in an audit, which product was affected and why cannot be shown. The seventh is ignoring the transition between calendar years in timetable calculations.

Important notice

This article is general information, not legal or customs advice; for the scope status of a specific product consult a licensed customs broker and verify the communiqué texts and annexes from the Official Gazette and the ministry's official pages. GTİP codes and product families mentioned here are illustrative only; the GTİP examples are not binding and do not constitute classification advice. Communiqués are renewed annually, and this article never replaces the current communiqué text.