Türkiye: duty-free import with an ATR certificate

  • Marco van Hagen
  • Edited 6 December 2024
  • 2 min
  • Managing and growing
  • International

An ATR certificate is a customs document. You can use it for the trade of goods between EU countries and Türkiye. An ATR certificate testifies to the origin of a product. You do not have to pay import duties. Read what origin means and how to use an ATR certificate.

Importing from Türkiye

The EU and Türkiye are members of a customs union. This means you can import products of Turkish origin free of import duties. And export your products to Türkiye without your customer paying import duties. You need an ATR certificate to do this. 

Importing with an ATR

The origin of a product is recorded on an ATR certificate. When importing products, origin means: 

  • that the product was manufactured in Türkiye, or 
  • that it has previously been imported from a third country into Türkiye.

In this case, an ATR proves that the products are of Turkish origin. Your Turkish client applies for the certificate from Turkish customs. You need this document when you file your import declaration in the Netherlands. You will then not pay import duties. Since 8 July 2024, Turkish customs has validated A.TR certificates by putting a QR code in box 12 of the document. Before then, there had to be an original signature from Turkish customs. A.TR certificates issued before 3 May 2024 have no customs signature. 

Exporting with an ATR

When exporting products to Türkiye origin means:

  • the product was manufactured in the EU, or
  • it has previouslbeen imported from a third country into the EU.

You, as the exporter, can fill in the ATR certificate yourself. The completed certificate must be validated by Dutch Customs. Your client in Türkiye then pays no import duty. 

Agricultural and steel products

On the website of Dutch customs, there is an overview (in Dutch) of the agricultural, coal, iron and steel products for which you cannot use the ATR certificate. These do not fall under the customs union with Türkiye. The EU has separate trade agreements covering these products. You pay less or no import duty for these products if you can show an EUR.1 or EUR.MED certificate or an invoice declaration at the Turkish customs. The products must be of preferential origin. 

Excluded products

For some products of EU origin, you pay additional customs duties. Even if the shipment comes with an ATR certificate. These are products imported into the EU from countries outside the EU and then exported to Turkey. You can find an overview of these products in the Access2Markets database. 

Using an ATR certificate

You have an ATR certificate validated at Dutch Customs together with your export declaration. After this, the ATR is valid for four months. You use it within this period when filing an import declaration in Türkiye.

Put the official name of Turkey on the ATR certificate. This is Türkiye. You must use this name on all export documents for the country.

You can order blank ATR certificates from printing businesses or suppliers of export forms and freight bills.  Make sure that this printing company has a licence from the National Origin Team (LOT) of the customs authorities. Or order them by emailing the Netherlands Tax Administration. The value of the shipment does not matter when applying for an ATR certificate. A customs broker can help you fill it out.

Licenced exporters may issue ATR certificates

Companies that export products of origin to Türkiye regularly can apply for a licence to issue ATR certificates themselves: the ‘Toegelaten Exporteur zelfafgifte certificaten inzake goederenverkeer ATR’ licence (in Dutch). The licence gives exporters permission to issue ATR certificates themselves, without having them validated by customs. The licence is issued by customs.

Read more about doing business with Türkiye. For example, the import and export rules you will have to deal with.