The European Union requested the establishment of a panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in early August to examine Turkey's "unlawful" measures on the importation and sale of pharmaceutical products.
The dispute with Ankara concerns measures that force foreign pharmaceutical producers to move their production to the country if they want their medicines to be eligible for reimbursement for consumers under the Turkish health system.
"These measures are a clear violation of Turkey's WTO obligations to treat foreign companies on an equal footing with domestic ones", the Commission explains.
The estimated value of pharmaceutical exports likely to be affected by these measures is €460 million. The measures taken by the Turkish authorities could potentially affect all EU exports to Turkey, worth more than €2.5 billion.
The EU has raised this issue with the Turkish authorities repeatedly over a long period of time, but so far without success.
The request for the establishment of a panel was first discussed at the meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body on 15 August.
Once the panel is established, the parties and/or the WTO Director-General will select three persons to be on the panel. The actual arbitration procedure will then be initiated. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)