Syria

The Association Agreement between the Republic of Turkey and the Syrian Arab Republic was signed on 22 December 2004 in Damascus and entered into force on 1 January 2007.

Upon its entry into force, this Agreement replaced;

- “Accord de Commerce Entre Le Gouvernement de la République de Turquie et le Gouvernemet de la République Arabe Syrienne (Commercial Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of The Syrian Arab Republic-signed on 17 September 1974)”,

- “Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic concerning the establishment of the Turkish-Syrian Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific, Technical and Commercial Co-operation (signed on 23 March 1982) and

- Long-Term Economic Co-operation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic (signed on 23 March 1982).

With Turkey-Syria Association Agreement, tariff and non-tariff barriers were eliminated in trade between Parties. Also, Agreement regulates numerous subjects such as sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property rights, internal taxation, balance of payments, public procurement, state aids, anti-dumping and safeguard measures and rules of origin as well as listing specific areas for cooperation.

Concerning industrial goods, customs duties applied by Turkey for the goods originating in Syria have been abolished by the entry into force of the Agreement. On the other hand, customs duties applied by Syria for the goods originating in Turkey are being abolished gradually until 1 January 2019 in accordance with the timetable laid down in Article III of the Agreement. The base rates applied by Syria which will be subject to tariff elimination are provided in Annex II of the Agreement.

Concerning agricultural products, Turkey and Syria granted each other duty reduction and/or elimination of customs duties in the form of tariff quotas for certain agricultural products originating in the other Party. Reciprocal concession lists for agricultural products are laid down in Protocol I of the Agreement.

The products which will benefit from the preferential tariffs should fulfill the rules of origin set out in Protocol II of the Agreement.

The trade volume between Turkey and Syria was realized as 1.43 billion US $ in 2017 with an increase of 3% compared to 2016. In 2017, imports from Syria were 70.56 million US $, whereas exports to Syria were 1.36 billion US$.

1The Association Agreement has been suspended due to political reasons as of 6 December 2011.