CHP slams Erdoğan over ‘no customs duty’ for import of grains, legumes

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The customs duty for the import of wheat, barley, rye, oat, corn, lentil and chickpea has been reduced to zero till December 31, 2021. The decision was published in the Official Gazette yesterday (September 7).

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has criticized the decision on Twitter.

Referring to the Presidential complex of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu has said, "The Palace has reduced the customs duty to be paid in importing legumes and grains to zero. There is an Erdoğan, who is determined to sound the death knell for our agriculture and farmers that have been struggling for their lives!"

Noting that "climate and agriculture are among the CHP's primary subjects of reform", Kılıçdaroğlu has briefly added:

"Look; this issue will perhaps not interest you much right now, but the most important issue for our children in the future will perhaps be our soil, water, energy and farmers. We will not leave our children a Turkey, which is a heaven of imported goods, or an infertile, barren Turkey."

'Our agricultural policy has collapsed'

CHP İstanbul MP Gürsel Tekin has also denounced the decision. He has said, "With this decision, our agricultural policy is over, it has collapsed. This day will go down in history as a black day for this reason."

Criticizing the agricultural policies of the AKP, Tekin has said, "The name of the decision of 'no customs duty' is obvious. It means that 'we are desperate for a sufficient amount of wheat, corn and barley necessary for our country, we have had to remove the customs walls'."

He has raised concerns that "in the current situation, everything is imported in Turkey, from the bread on our tables, as the wheat is imported, to the rice on the plate, the chickpeas on the rice, the sunflower oil in the meal and the cotton of the clothes that were are wearing."

Sharing information about the debts of farmers as well, Tekin has recalled that while farmers' debt to banks was 4.3 billion dollars in 2005, this amount increased to 17 billion dollars, according to the March 2021 report of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. "Farmers' debt has more than quadrupled in 16 years," Gürsel Tekin has underlined.

"In the ruling AKP era, when import is supported and almost one million people have quitted farming, farmers have been turned into workers on their own land," CHP's Tekin has said, briefly adding, "While our country was one of the seven self-sufficient countries in agriculture, how is it now made a total importer? Because the AKP does not like producers."

Tekin has called on the authorities to reverse the decision.

Agricultural workers are awaiting a solution

CHP Niğde MP Ömer Fethi Gürer has also visited seasonal agricultural workers in the Yeşilgölcük town in central Niğde.

Workers have said that they are having trouble with toilet and bathroom facilities in the tent camp and serious problems with electricity supply. A worker has told Gürer, "We cannot even find utility water, let alone drinking water. Together with children, we are waging a tough struggle for life."

Güre has said that nearly 500 workers are currently staying in Yeşilgölcük and added: "Seasonal agricultural workers are working in different provinces, districts and villages of Central Anatolia. As can be seen in the field, the circular letters promising solutions for all problems by the ministry have not cured a single problem of them." (DŞ/SD)