Executive summary

The Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués for 2026, prepared by the Ministry of Trade, published in the 4th Duplicate Issue of the Official Gazette No. 33124 dated 31 December 2025, introduce numerous amendments.

The main objective of Product Safety and Inspections on imports is to verify whether imported products to be placed on the market in Turkiye meet the minimum safety requirements necessary for the protection of human health, life and property safety, animal and plant life and health, the environment and consumers.

Within the scope of the Product Safety and Technical Regulations legislation, import product safety inspections aim to ensure that products falling under the technical regulations — harmonized with the European Union's technical legislation by the relevant authorities since 2005 and put into effect in the domestic market — are inspected at the time of import. The products to be inspected and the inspection procedures are determined in accordance with the technical legislation (regulations/standards) enacted in the domestic market by the competent public authorities and are published annually in the form of Communiqués, after obtaining the views of the relevant public institutions and private sector organizations.

Detailed discussion

Changes made in the 2026 Communiques include those highlighted below.

Fixed "out of scope" reference number removed from Communiqués

For Harmonized System (HS) codes listed in the annexes of the Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués that do not correspond to the definition of goods subject to inspection, the fixed "out of scope" reference number specified in the relevant Communiqués declared by the importer has been removed from all Communiqués.

In this context, submitting a Risk-Based Trade Control System (TAREKS) application has become mandatory for all HS codes listed in the annexes of the Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués. (TAREKS is a web-based system that enables import and export inspections to be carried out on a risk-based basis, designed to protect consumers and producers in Turkiye by ensuring compliance with safety, quality and standards.)

Communiqué No. 2026/32 published specifically for machinery

Unlike in 2025, a new Communiqué on the Inspection of Imported Machinery (2026/32) has been issued for the machinery product group. The annexes of the Communiqué contain two separate HS code lists. Accordingly, one of the lists reflects the preauthorization requirement found in Communiqué No. 2 on Product Safety and Inspection, applied similarly to certain machinery HS codes. The second list includes all other HS codes subject to the Machinery Safety Regulation (2006/42/EC) that were previously covered under Communiqué No. 9 on the Inspection of Certain Products Required to Bear the "CE" Mark, without any change in the inspection procedure.

Product images taken in bonded warehouse area must be provided in TAREKS application

The Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués No. 2026/8 (Import Inspection of Radio Equipment), 2026/10 (Import Inspection of Toys), 2026/14 (Import Inspection of Construction Materials) and 2026/15 (Import Inspection of Batteries and Accumulators), now require product images taken in the bonded warehouse area to be uploaded to the TAREKS application.

Sanction periods updated

The 2025 Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués provide that, for inspections carried out via TAREKS, if an authorized company user violated the relevant legislation, the provisions of the Communiqué or related practices would be suspended for a period of 3 to 12 months, depending on the severity of the violation, and the company's inspection applications would be redirected to physical inspection for a period of 6 to 12 months. Under the 2026 Communiqués, the company user's authorization will be suspended and the company's applications will be redirected to physical inspection for between 1 and 12 months.

In physical inspections, company representative must sign completed sampling report

Under the new practice that entered into force in 2026, completing the sampling report during physical inspections and having it signed by the company representative has been made mandatory. If the company representative refuses to sign, the application will be concluded with an immediate "Rejection."

Transition period established in 2026 Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués

The importation of products for which a transport document was issued in the country of dispatch before 1 January 2026 for shipment to Turkiye for export purposes, or that were submitted to the customs authorities under the Customs Legislation, may be finalized in accordance with the provisions of the 2025 Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués — provided that a TAREKS application is submitted by 28 February 2026 (inclusive) and upon the request of the importer.

Definitions section includes terms "Company," "Company User," and "Company Representative"

The "definitions" section of the Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués has been expanded, and instead of referring only to the "User," the terms "Company," "Company User," and "Company Authorized Representative" have been included.

In the previous system, only individuals authorized to represent and bind the company (as indicated in the company's signature circular) could carry out transactions in TAREKS as the "user." Under the new system, the company representative may authorize a company user to perform transactions on behalf of the company in TAREKS.

Integrations implemented for company registration/authorization processes in TAREKS

Due to integrations with the Central Registration System (MERSIS), the Tradesmen and Craftsmen Information System (ESBIS) and the Identity Sharing System (KPS), TAREKS application procedures have been fully digitized, and the processes requiring the physical submission of notarized documents to inspection units have been eliminated.

Changes introduced in data and document processing system used for TAREKS applications

In the previous system, the information and documents uploaded to TAREKS were reviewed manually but, under the new system, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies are now being used. Additionally, rather than having to manually enter data, it has become possible to submit TAREKS applications by generating data in XML format.

Implications

For HS codes listed in the annexes of the Product Safety and Inspection Communiqués that do not correspond to the definition of goods subject to inspection, the fixed "out of scope" reference number specified in the relevant Communiqués declared by the importer has been removed from all Communiqués. Among the 2026 changes, the removal of the "fixed out-of-scope reference number" is particularly important, as it results in application requirements' being imposed through TAREKS, even for products that do not fall within the scope of product safety inspections.

For many products that are not related to the items targeted for inspection, the inability to complete import procedures without obtaining approval from the TAREKS system could burden both the time and finances of manufacturing companies in Turkiye.

Additionally, this situation causes customs brokers to charge companies a fee per transaction for TAREKS, as well as an additional inspection fee if the goods are subjected to physical inspection.