Import Inspection of Tobacco, Tobacco Products, Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages – Communiqué No: 2026/19 (Türkiye)

Scope

The Communiqué covers imports of the listed goods under multiple customs regimes, including:

• Release for Free Circulation,
• Inward Processing, Outward Processing,
• Processing Under Customs Control, and
• Temporary Importation.

This is operationally important: controls are not limited to free circulation; several special regimes are explicitly included.

Dual Control Structure

1) Conformity Inspection & Certification (Annex-1)

For Annex-1 goods, import is conditional on compliance with a broad set of technical rules referenced in Article 4, including sector-specific regulations for:

• alcohol and alcoholic beverages,
• tobacco production/processing/trade,
• tobacco product production and trade,
• nominal fill quantities for prepackages,
• ethyl alcohol and methanol trade rules,
• cigarette papers, tubes, filters, and the 2023 technical communiqués for specific tobacco product types (e.g., waterpipe tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, etc.).

Competent authority: The Tobacco and Alcohol Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry issues the Certificate of Conformity (Uygunluk Belgesi) for Annex-1 goods (including ethyl alcohol, methanol and the listed tobacco-related goods).

The Certificate may also be issued as an e-document via the Single Window System.

2) Notification-Based Track (Annex-2)

For retail-ready alcoholic beverages listed in Annex-2 (e.g., beer, wine, vermouth, other fermented beverages, and spirits under the defined scope), the importer must submit an alcoholic beverage notification to the same authority under the relevant secondary legislation. This is positioned as a separate compliance gate from the Annex-1 conformity certificate track.

Products That Cannot Be Imported (Annex-3)

A key compliance risk area is the explicit prohibition list, which includes (among others):

• bulk beer/wine/vermouth and similar bulk fermented products,
• certain categories of bulk ethyl alcohol and bulk alcoholic beverages,
• specific “Şark type” sun-dried tobaccos except limited exceptions (test/sample/R&D or processing in a tobacco processing facility),
• certain tobacco dust / specific fractions, and
• tobacco-containing products under the “new tobacco product” category as listed.

From a customs planning perspective, this means the legal barrier is not simply “certificate missing”—the Communiqué creates absolute import prohibitions for listed product forms.

Out-of-Scope Letter (Annex-4)

If a product appears under the same GTIP structure (Annex-1) but is determined not to fall within the remit of the Tobacco and Alcohol Department, the importer may obtain an official Out-of-Scope Letter (Kapsam Dışı Yazısı).This letter can also be issued through the Single Window as an e-document.

Customs Procedure and Box 44 Practice

• For Annex-1 goods, the Certificate of Conformity or Out-of-Scope Letter must be submitted to customs at the time of declaration registration.
• The importer is responsible for both the control compliance and any out-of-scope declarations.

Special rule: If ethyl alcohol or methanol is imported under Inward Processing and then intended to be placed into free circulation without any processing, a predefined reference number must be entered into Box 44, and in that scenario the Certificate of Conformity is not issued (as explicitly provided by the Communiqué).

Enforcement and Compliance Risk

The importer is legally responsible under:

• Law No. 7223 (Product Safety and Technical Regulations),
• Customs Law No. 4458,
• and the relevant Technical Regulations Regime rules.

False/misleading declarations, forged documents or document tampering trigger multi-layer enforcement exposure (product safety + customs).

Repealed Regulation and Entry into Force

• Communiqué 2025/19 is repealed.
• Entry into force: 1 January 2026.
• References in other legislation to 2025/19 are deemed to refer to 2026/19.

Professional Compliance Assessment

Operationally, this Communiqué is a high-control import area with three immediate compliance checkpoints for companies:

1. Correct classification and track selection: determine whether the product is Annex-1 (certificate) or Annex-2 (notification).
2. Pre-import documentation discipline: ensure the Certificate of Conformity (or Out-of-Scope Letter) is secured early and correctly linked for customs registration.
3. Absolute prohibitions screening: validate whether the product falls under Annex-3 non-importable forms (bulk beverages, certain tobacco categories). This step is critical, because certification cannot cure an outright import prohibition.

If these are not built into the import workflow, the most likely outcomes are declaration blockage at registration, seizure/refusal scenarios, and elevated enforcement risk.

See the legislation document.