Import duties overhauled

Tariffs cut on Chinese vehicles

Increases for Japan and Mexico

Turkey has overhauled automotive import duties, reducing tariffs on Chinese vehicles while imposing stiff increases on some other exporters, notably Japan and Mexico. 

Under new regulations issued by the trade ministry on Sunday, imports of conventional and hybrid cars will incur an additional levy of 25 percent or a minimum of $6,000 per unit. Hybrid plug-in vehicles will be taxed a further 30 percent or $7,000 per unit. 

For electric cars the increase is also 30 percent, or at least $7,000 on each sale, with the new levies coming into effect 60 days after the September 21 announcement to let ongoing imports pass through the supply pipeline. 

These measures, the ministry said, are intended to ease pressure from imports on the local sector and help reduce the current-account deficit. 

The sector employs more than 400,000 workers in direct vehicle manufacture and side industries, with exports of $37.2 billion in 2024. In August Ömer Bolat, the trade minister, forecast the figure could rise to $41 billion this year, based on a 14 percent jump in overseas sales in the first seven months of 2025. 

However, a supplementary statement from the ministry showed that the new tariffs amended existing levies and would not apply across the board, with differing duties for some overseas producers.

Duties on Chinese manufacturers were slashed from the former level of 60 percent to between 35 and 40 percent. Levies on imports from Japan, Mexico and South Africa rose from a base rate of 10 percent also to between 35 and 40 percent. 

Vehicle imports from the European Union – the leading automotive supplier to Turkey with more than 80 percent of inbound shipments – will continue to attract zero tariffs.

It is unclear what impact the revised levies will have on Chinese vehicle sales in Turkey or on domestic production, according to Anıl Şentürk, chair of the automotive committee at the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. 

“With the lowering of customs duties on Chinese vehicles, costs should come down, but whether Chinese companies will reflect that in their ticket price is yet to be seen,” he told AGBI. 

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Another clear winner will be US manufacturers, with levies on American vehicles cut from as much as 70 percent to the base rate of between 35 and 40 percent.

Among the marques that could benefit is Tesla, Şentürk said, opening a space in the market for the US maker of electric vehicles to compete against local and Chinese brands.