The Turkish government has requested assistance from one of the country’s top export associations to help enforce a ban on trade with Israel, which has led to a slowdown in goods flow, a report said on Tuesday.
Since it ceased trade with Israel in May over its genocidal attacks on Gaza, Türkiye’s exports to Palestinian territories have skyrocketed. This sparked some debates over whether shipments may be continuing with Israel, which the government has repeatedly denied.
Palestinian authorities had also declared several times that Turkish goods were used exclusively in Palestinian areas.
The government has now turned to the Central Anatolian Exporters’ Association, and the Trade Ministry has asked the group to require more checks and approvals of proposed shipments, including vetting with Palestinian authorities, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
One of the sources, from an export association, said the new system began in mid-October, causing an initial backlog. “There is a procedural change in exports to Palestine,” he said.
In response to a Reuters query, the Trade Ministry said goods were only shipped if approved by Palestinian authorities under a bilateral trade mechanism. “The destination is Palestine and the importer is a Palestinian,” it said.
Türkiye, among the fiercest critics of Israel’s war on Gaza that has so far killed 43,972 Palestinians, mostly women and children, has cut exports there to zero since May, from a monthly average of $380 million in the first four months of the year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
But at the same time, exports to Palestinian territories – which must flow through Israel – jumped around tenfold to a monthly average of $127 million in the June-September period, from only $12 million in the first four months of the year, the data show.
New slower system
The top goods leaving Turkish ports and earmarked for Palestinian territories in recent months are steel, cement, machinery and chemicals, according to the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said this month that, before the ban, some $2 billion of Türkiye’s $6.5 billion annual trade with Israel was goods ultimately purchased by Palestinian buyers.
Last week, Bolat told Parliament that the Palestinian Economy Ministry vetted all shipments. The Trade Ministry told Reuters that Palestinian confirmations then run through an electronic system, after which customs declarations require a separate approval.
The Central Anatolian Exporters’ Association is an umbrella body for sector-specific export groups.
Under the new instructions from the government, the association is the main approval body, two sources said. It must first confirm receipt of information about the proposed export including the Palestinian authorities’ approval, and then approve a separate application for export, sources said.
The first source said the system was working now but was slower than in the past due to relevant checks.
In the first 10 months of the year, exports to Palestinian territories were up 543% from a year earlier, TIM data show. In the first four months before the Israel ban was imposed, they were up only 35%.
