Importing furniture from Türkiye

For an EU buyer, Turkish furniture arrives under the customs union: duties are eliminated on goods in free circulation, and the proof is an A.TR movement certificate. For a UK buyer it arrives under a free trade agreement, which is a different thing — preference depends on rules of origin, not on free circulation. For a US buyer the tariff line is the live variable. Get that distinction right and most import problems never start.

The EU: free circulation, not origin

The final phase of the customs union between Türkiye and the EU entered into force on 1 July 1996 under Decision No 1/95. It eliminates customs duties and quantitative restrictions between the two parts of the union for goods either wholly produced there or put into free circulation after import from a third country. The customs status of “goods in free circulation” is proved by the A.TR movement certificate.

Two consequences a buyer should hold on to. First, A.TR is a free circulation document and not an origin document: it says the goods may move without duty, not that they were made in Türkiye. If your contract, your customer or your marketing depends on Turkish origin, that is a separate document and a separate question to ask. Second, since 2024 the certificate can be issued electronically with a QR code, so a supplier telling you a wet signature is the reason for a delay is describing an old process.

The index holds 1,886 firms exporting to Germany, 1,198 firms exporting to France, 911 firms exporting to the Netherlands, 1,096 firms exporting to Romania, 1,204 firms exporting to Bulgaria among other EU markets.

The UK: preference has to be earned

The UK–Türkiye agreement keeps preferential tariff rates on bilateral trade, but goods must meet the agreement’s preferential rules of origin to get them. Goods that do not qualify can still be traded — they pay the standard Most Favoured Nation tariff instead. So for a UK import the question is not “is there an agreement” but “does this product originate under it”, which is answered by where the components came from and what was done to them in Türkiye.

Ask the supplier for the origin declaration in the contract, not at the border. The index holds 1,221 firms exporting to the United Kingdom.

The United States: the tariff line is the variable

Türkiye is not inside either arrangement above when it ships to the US, and the live question is the Section 232 measure on timber, lumber and their derivative products — which reaches furniture lines and has scheduled step changes. The rates, the dates and what they cover are set out with the proclamations they come from. 1,056 firms in the index export to the United States.

The documents that travel with the goods

Commercial invoice and packing list — the packing list is what an FF&E delivery is checked against on site, so ask for it by room or by area, not by pallet.
A.TR for the EU, or an origin declaration for the UK. They are not interchangeable.
Transport document — CMR for road, bill of lading for sea.
Certificate of origin where your market or your customer asks for one.
Compliance paperwork for your market, which is the importer's duty and not the factory's: EUDR for wood into the EU, GPSR for the EU responsible person, the formaldehyde limit on the finished article.

Road, sea, and what the lane costs you in time

Most Turkish furniture into Europe moves by road, which is why the fair organiser in İnegöl advertises delivery to Europe in days rather than the weeks a Far East container takes. Treat that as the organiser’s claim: the useful version for a buyer is that the lane is a truck, so it prices and schedules like a truck — smaller minimum volumes, part loads, and a delivery date that moves with border queues rather than with sailing schedules.

Sea freight is the Gulf, North Africa and the Americas. There the question returns to container maths: what fits in a 40-foot high cube decides the unit landed cost more than the factory price does.

One shipment, several trades

A hotel or a retail order rarely stops at furniture. The same lorry commonly carries the textiles, the carpet, the lighting and electrical items, the ceramics and glass and the metalwork — and each of those is a roster in this index with its own exporters. Consolidating them changes the arithmetic: one customs entry, one set of documents, one delivery to coordinate. It also changes who is responsible when one line is late, so name the consolidator in the contract.

What to settle before the first order

Which Incoterm, in writing. EXW and FOB put very different work on you.
Who prepares the A.TR or the origin declaration, and who pays if it is wrong.
Whether the price includes export packing to your standard, and whose pallets.
What happens to an unshipped balance if a tariff or a rule changes mid-contract.
Which firm is actually producing — the checks that answer that are free and take an afternoon.

Sources3

Each link goes to the text the fact above was read from. Opened and read on 17 September 2026.

European Commission — Türkiye: customs unions and preferential arrangements Decision No 1/95, whose final phase entered into force on 1 July 1996: free movement and the elimination of customs duties for goods wholly produced or put into free circulation in either part of the customs union, with the A.TR movement certificate as the proof of that status. Also the 2024 note on A.TR certificates issued electronically with a QR code.
GOV.UK — summary of the UK-Türkiye trade agreement That preferential tariff rates continue to apply to bilateral trade, that goods must meet the UK-Türkiye preferential rules of origin to get them, and that goods which do not may pay the standard Most Favoured Nation tariff.
MODEF Expo — fair pages The İnegöl fair organiser’s own claim about road freight to Europe — quoted on this page as the organiser’s claim, not as a measured transit time.

Other guides8

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