Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ (No: 2025/3) in Resmî Gazete (Issue 32972) on 31 July 2025, adding sodium gluconate (GTİP 2918.16.00.00.13) to the country's import surveillance mechanism. Imports whose unit customs (CIF) value is at or below USD 1.5 per kilogram gross weight require a six-month "gözetim belgesi" (supervision certificate) from the Imports General Directorate before customs clearance; the measure entered into force on 30 August 2025, thirty days after publication. Global Trade Alert logs the intervention as "certainly harmful" and names China as the principal exporter affected. The mechanism does not block imports outright but adds a licensing/documentation step that functions as a de facto minimum-price floor on cheap sodium gluconate imports. It runs in parallel with a separate Turkish anti-dumping investigation into sodium gluconate from China opened under the Prevention of Unfair Competition in Imports framework (Tebliğ No: 2025/9) around the same period, protecting the domestic producer (Sunar Mısır Entegre Tesisleri) that petitioned for both measures.

Analyst notesShow

Mechanism

The Imports General Directorate (İthalat Genel Müdürlüğü) under the Ministry of Trade operates a standing "gözetim" (surveillance) regime that layers unit-value-triggered licensing on top of Türkiye's ordinary MFN tariff schedule. Communiqué 2025/3 adds sodium gluconate under customs tariff statistics position 2918.16.00.00.13 to the list of goods subject to this mechanism: any consignment declared with a unit CIF value at or below USD 1.5/kg gross weight cannot clear customs without a supervision certificate issued in advance by the Directorate. The certificate is valid for six months from issuance and must accompany the customs declaration (Article 8: entry into force thirty days after publication).

Sodium gluconate is a chelating agent used mainly in concrete admixtures, metal surface treatment/cleaning and food-grade applications. This gözetim communiqué was published the same Resmî Gazete day (31 July 2025, Issue 32972) as a sister surveillance tebliğ on ice-making machines (Tebliğ No: 2025/4, already filed in this register), consistent with Türkiye's practice of bundling multiple unrelated product-line surveillance additions into the same gazette issue.

Downstream implications

Paired with an active anti-dumping case. Unlike most

standalone gözetim additions, this one runs alongside a formal dumping investigation into Chinese sodium gluconate (Tebliğ No: 2025/9) filed by the same domestic petitioner, Sunar Mısır Entegre Tesisleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş. — the surveillance certificate gives the Directorate real-time visibility into underpriced clearances while the dumping case proceeds.

Narrow, low-severity friction on its own. The measure

covers a single HS statistical line and only bites at or below a fixed USD 1.5/kg threshold — a minimum-price-style surveillance tool, not a ban. Severity is set low (2), consistent with other single-line Turkish gözetim additions in the register (e.g. the ice-maker communiqué).

China exposure. GTA names China as the principal exporter

affected; Chinese sodium gluconate producers are the most likely source of imports clearing at or below the USD 1.5/kg line.

Open questions

Does the parallel Tebliğ No: 2025/9 anti-dumping investigation

into sodium gluconate from China conclude with provisional or definitive duties, and should that be filed as a responds_to-linked follow-on action once its outcome is confirmed?

Does the USD 1.5/kg threshold get revised in subsequent

amendments?

Sources

Primary: Resmî Gazete — İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ (No: 2025/3)

Secondary: Global Trade Alert — state act 93758 (Türkiye sodium gluconate import licensing requirement)

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Mechanism

Downstream implications

Paired with an active anti-dumping case. Unlike most

Narrow, low-severity friction on its own. The measure

China exposure. GTA names China as the principal exporter

affected; Chinese sodium gluconate producers are the most likely source of imports clearing at or below the USD 1.5/kg line.

Open questions

Does the parallel Tebliğ No: 2025/9 anti-dumping investigation

into sodium gluconate from China conclude with provisional or definitive duties, and should that be filed as a responds_to-linked follow-on action once its outcome is confirmed?

Does the USD 1.5/kg threshold get revised in subsequent

amendments?