Turkey after a more than year-long review, dealing a potential blow to the world's No 3 grower of natural fibre amid concerns Ankara could resort to anti-dumping duties as US cotton imports are damaging their domestic output.

The Economy Ministry in an interim investigative report stated that cotton imports originating from the United States have caused material damage to their local production.

US and Turkish traders are invited to send in responses to the report by February 24, a ministry official said. A final report would then be drawn up "in a reasonable amount of time". A committee would then decide whether to advise that anti-dumping tariffs be imposed. The fact that US cotton imports were identified as a main reason for damage and that dumping margins were spelled out leads them to think that Turkey is willing to impose measures, Bulent Hacioglu, an attorney at Istanbul-based trade law firm Trade Resources said.

The report said that the majority of US cotton was sold to Turkey by four firms: LD Commodities Cotton LLC (LDC), Noble Americas Resources Corporation, Cargill Cotton Business Unit and Staple Cotton Cooperative Association. The investigation calculated the dumping margin at 3.14 percent of cost insurance and freight (CIF) prices for Cargill, 5.89 percent for Noble, 6.17 percent for Staple and 7.91 percent for LDC.

The margin for other exporters was calculated at 5.9 percent. The figures show the maximum tariffs Turkey could impose on US cotton. According to local regulations, the inquiry launched in October 2014 needs to be finalized by April 18.

According to data from the National Cotton Council of America, Turkey was the world's seventh-largest producer of cotton last year with 2.65 million bales of the crop and the US cotton made up around half of Turkey's cotton imports in 2012-2014. In 2014, Turkey imported 450,226 metric tonnes of US cotton, worth 915 million dollar according to the report.