Discussions on the special budget, regulatory and supervisory institutions budget, budget, final accounts and Court of Accounts reports of the Ministry of Commerce and affiliated institutions and organizations started in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Planning and Budget Commission.
The commission convened under the chairmanship of AK Party Samsun Deputy Mehmet Muş.
Minister of Commerce Ömer Bolat made a presentation on the 2027 budgets of his Ministry and its affiliated organizations.
Providing information about the reflections of the geopolitical developments in recent years on the world economy, commodity and energy prices, Bolat pointed out that the Iran-USA-Israel war in the nearby geography added to these difficulties and further aggravated the risks for the world economy and trade.
Bolat stated that, as the Ministry, they are working to protect domestic producers against unfair imports, to continuously increase exports on the basis of goods and services, to increase the efficiency of customs, to ensure that domestic trade operates under stable and fair competition conditions, to strengthen tradesmen and SMEs, as well as to protect consumers, in line with the vision of "Making Turkey's Century the Century of Trade" put forward by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Emphasizing that the export of goods, which was 36 billion dollars in 2002, increased to 273.2 billion dollars in 2025, the highest level in the history of the Republic, Bolat said, "We increased our service exports, which were 14 billion dollars in 2002, by approximately 9 times to 124.9 billion dollars in 2025. Thus, our services trade surplus gave a record surplus of 63 billion dollars, making a significant positive contribution to the current account balance. Our total exports of goods and services are at the last "It has increased 7.9 times in 24 years." he said.
Referring to the October foreign trade data announced yesterday, Bolat stated that annualized goods exports rose to 285.6 billion dollars last month, breaking an all-time record.
Emphasizing that monthly goods exports increased in 31 of the last 42 months and that the monthly goods exports record was broken in 24 of the last 42 months, Bolat said:
"This year, we achieved monthly export increases in 7 of the first 10 months, and monthly export records were broken in 6 of them. Especially since April, we have been breaking monthly export records every month. In the January-October period of this year, 53 of our provinces increased their exports, and 30 of our provinces exported over 1 billion dollars. Our share in world exports, which was 0.55 percent in 2002, increased to 1.04 percent last year. These achievements are the result of Hormuz. "It was achieved despite the tensions caused by the blockade in the Strait, the bombing of ships in the Black Sea, the stagnation in the European Union markets, the hot wars around us and the Israeli genocides in the Middle East."
Bolat stated that the 410 billion dollar goods and services export target announced by President Erdoğan at the beginning of 2026 was exceeded by 413 billion dollars as of October, and said that while they are trying to increase the exports and markets of traditional products, they have also made significant progress in increasing the exports of technology-intensive products.
Stating that the share of medium-high and high-technology product exports in total manufacturing industry exports, which was 30.4 percent in 2002, increased to 43.5 percent by 2025 and 44.3 percent as of October, reaching the highest level of all time, Bolat said, "We support the expenses of companies in our country for improving their international competitiveness, strengthening their export capacities, promotion, marketing and branding abroad." he said.
Bolat reminded that they provided 23.5 billion lira support to 22 thousand 686 goods exporters in 2025, and that the allocated resource increased to 32.8 billion lira in 2026, and stated that they currently provide 21.2 billion lira support to 15 thousand 914 companies.
Stating that they provided nearly 12.5 billion liras of support to exporters this year in service exports, Bolat said that 2 thousand 435 service exporters received 7.4 billion liras of support in 2025, and this support increased to 12 billion liras in 2026.
Bolat stated that 2 thousand 104 companies have currently received 11 billion liras of support and said:
"With your support and approval, the resource allocated for support for the export of goods and services in 2027 will be 65 billion lira. In addition to these supports, we support our companies with 220 trade consultants and attachés in 167 centers in 114 countries. Turkish Eximbank and Central Bank export rediscount loans make a significant contribution to supporting the financing of our exports. Eximbank, which provided 54.3 billion dollars of financial support last year, has provided 59 billion dollars of financial support this year. "The Turkish Trade Bank will increase its financial support from 76.3 billion lira in 2025 to 110 billion lira by the end of this year."
Stating that Export Development Inc. (IGE) has provided 297.7 billion lira of guarantee to SMEs so far and provided the opportunity to use 340.4 billion lira of credit, Bolat said that the daily rediscount credit limit of exporters has been increased to 5 billion lira.
Bolat pointed out that a total of 1.9 trillion liras of rediscount credit was provided to exporters in the last 22 months with the resources of the Central Bank, and said, "Approximately 541 billion liras of interest subsidy was provided. 11 billion dollars of exports were realized from our 19 free zones in 10 months of this year. On the other hand, despite the heavy pressures of the war on energy and commodity prices, our import increase remained limited this year."
Underlining that imports were at an annualized level of 380.8 billion dollars as of October, Bolat said that the increase in energy imports was caused by excessive price increases in world markets, and yet the increase in imports remained behind the increase in exports.
"We contribute to the protection of local and national production"
Bolat stated that last year was closed with a foreign trade deficit of 92.2 billion dollars, and in the January-October period of this year, the annualized foreign trade deficit remained at the level of 95.1 billion dollars, with an additional increase of only 2.9 billion dollars.
Stating that the export-import coverage ratio increased by 0.2 points to 75 percent, despite the negativities in the world's foreign trade and economy, Bolat said:
"We are determined to protect our domestic production and national production against unfair trade elements. At this point, we have measures against 155 dumping and subsidies. We have measures against the ineffectiveness of 118 measures. We do not allow dumped imports to come through other countries. We have surveillance practices in 192 product groups. We have protection measures called 'safeguard' in 10 product groups, and additional customs duties are applied on 4 thousand 618 products, which are local products." "We contribute to our efforts to protect and develop national production as a foreign trade policy. In 2025, we comprehensively renewed the Risk-Based Control System in Foreign Trade (TAREKS) using artificial intelligence technologies, and an effective inspection is carried out against non-conforming products in imports, and in this sense, extensive cooperation with the Turkish Standards Institute continues."
