← Back to blog

Customs & Duties

Turkey is one of the UK's most significant non-EU trading partners, with particular strength in textiles, clothing, automotive parts, machinery, and agricultural products. The UK and Turkey have a bilateral trade agreement — the UK-Turkey Trade Agreement — signed on 29 December 2020 and applied from 1 January 2021. It is a free trade agreement that replicates the market access Turkey previously had with the UK through the EU-Turkey Customs Union (which still exists — it just no longer covers the UK). The agreement covers more than most importers assume, and that includes clothing.

What the UK-Turkey Trade Agreement Covers

The UK-Turkey Trade Agreement provides preferential duty rates on industrial goods — and that includes textiles and clothing. For manufactured products that originate in Turkey — machinery, automotive components, steel products, chemicals, garments, and processed goods — the agreement delivers 0% duty. This covers a large proportion of Turkey's export base.

The two areas that need attention:

• Agricultural goods: limited preferences apply. Many food and agricultural products from Turkey face standard UKGT rates rather than preferential rates.
• Textiles and clothing: covered — but only for Turkish-originating goods. Garments that meet the agreement's rules of origin enter the UK at 0%; garments made in Turkey from third-country fabric may fail those rules and default to the standard 12% UKGT rate for most garments. Turkey doesn't need the Developing Countries Trading Scheme — the trade agreement gives it better access than any DCTS tier. The practical point for UK fashion importers is to confirm origin status with the supplier before pricing the order, because the difference is the whole 12%.

Rules of Origin Under the UK-Turkey Agreement

To claim preferential duty rates under the UK-Turkey agreement, goods must originate in Turkey according to the agreement's rules of origin. Turkey's position as a major textile manufacturer means that some goods sold as "made in Turkey" involve significant quantities of fabric or raw materials sourced from third countries — and whether those goods genuinely qualify as Turkish-originating under the specific rules of origin depends on how much processing occurred in Turkey.

For industrial goods, the rules of origin typically require that the goods undergo sufficient processing in Turkey to change their tariff heading. For textiles, the standard rule requires fabric to be woven and the garment to be cut and sewn in Turkey — meaning clothing assembled from Chinese fabric may not qualify. Ask your Turkish supplier to confirm the origin status and to provide a statement on origin if you intend to claim preference.

Duty Rates in Practice

Automotive parts and industrial components: typically 0–4% under the UK-Turkey agreement, often 0% for most classifications.

Machinery and equipment: generally 0% under the agreement for most categories.

Clothing and garments: 0% for Turkish-originating garments under the agreement. The 12% UKGT rate only applies where the origin rules aren't met — typically garments cut and sewn in Turkey from third-country fabric.

Leather goods: 0% for originating Turkish goods under the agreement; the UKGT fallback on leather handbags and cases is 2%.

Ceramics and homeware: 0–6% depending on specific product and classification.

A Worked Example

A UK fashion retailer imports £800 of woven cotton shirts from a manufacturer in Istanbul. The shirts are made from Turkish-woven fabric, and the supplier provides a statement on origin, so preference is claimed.

That £125 gap is the value of a piece of paper — the statement on origin. Qualifying Turkish clothing at 0% undercuts Chinese-sourced equivalents, which carry the full 12% UKGT, and matches Bangladesh (0% under DCTS). India's position is in flux: its DCTS textile preferences are suspended from January 2026, so Indian woven garments currently pay 12%, with the UK-India trade agreement taking them to 0% from 15 July 2026. See the full guide to importing clothing into the UK for a comparison of origin-based rates across major textile supplying countries.

Getting Commodity Codes Right for Turkish Imports

Turkey exports a genuinely diverse range of goods — from refined petroleum products to hazelnuts to automotive wiring harnesses. The commodity code matters more for Turkish imports than for many other origins precisely because the trade agreement applies different preferences to different product categories, and the UKGT rate varies significantly within broad categories. A textile input (fabric, yarn) may face a different rate from a finished garment, and an industrial component may attract 0% when a consumer product in the same chapter attracts 4%.

Use the full duty calculation process — confirm the 10-digit commodity code for your specific product, check the applicable rate for Turkish origin, and verify whether the UK-Turkey agreement preference applies before you order. ClearDuty returns the correct duty rate and full landed cost breakdown once you enter the commodity code and origin country.