What a Turkish company should verify before its first import order

Most of the money in an import is won or lost before anyone signs anything. The FOB price is the number everybody negotiates and it is rarely the number that decides whether the deal works. Four checks settle that, and all of them can be done from an office in Istanbul before a supplier is contacted.

1. Get the exact GTİP code, not the chapter

Turkish customs classifies every imported good under a GTİP code — twelve digits, built on the international HS system. The duty rate, any additional customs duty, any anti-dumping measure and any surveillance threshold all hang off that code. A four-digit heading tells you almost nothing; two products in the same heading can carry very different rates.

The mistake is estimating from a chapter-level figure found online. Someone reads that machinery duty is "0–5%" and builds a model on it, then discovers at clearance that their specific code carries an additional duty they never priced. The fix is unglamorous: take the actual product specification to a licensed gümrük müşaviri and get the code and the rates in writing before ordering.

2. Check whether the product falls under gözetim

Türkiye applies import surveillance to certain goods below a stated unit value — usually expressed in dollars per kilogram. The purpose is to stop under-invoicing. If your goods price below the threshold, you cannot simply clear them: a surveillance certificate is required first, obtained from the Ministry of Trade.

This catches cheap imports specifically, which means it catches exactly the business model that depends on being cheap. Anyone planning an economy-tier import line should check the threshold for their GTİP before anything else, because a product that prices under it is a fundamentally different commercial proposition from one that does not.

3. Understand what your payment terms cost

Turkish importers pay KKDF — a levy on imports made on deferred payment terms. Pay cash in advance and it does not apply. Take credit from your supplier and it does. This produces a result that surprises people: negotiating generous payment terms can cost you more than negotiating a better price.

That does not make terms worthless. Deferred payment is a cash-flow instrument, and for a company whose constraint is working capital rather than margin, paying the levy may be entirely rational. The point is to price it deliberately rather than discover it at clearance. Work out both scenarios before the negotiation, so you know which concession you actually want.

4. Set the payment trigger, not just the split

The default terms offered to a first-time buyer are commonly a deposit against order and the balance before shipment. Read that carefully: it means the full amount is paid before the goods have been seen, inspected or loaded. If what arrives is wrong, you have nothing left to bargain with.

The fix is a single clause. Make the balance payable against an approved inspection, or at minimum against a copy of the bill of lading, so the goods have at least cleared export customs before the money moves. For a first order below the value where litigation is economic — and most first orders are — the payment trigger is the only protection that actually functions. The contract is a document; the trigger is the mechanism.

What this adds up to

• The GTİP code and its rates, in writing, from a licensed broker
• The surveillance threshold for that code, and whether your unit value clears it
• The landed cost modelled both ways — cash in advance, and on terms with the levy
• A payment trigger tied to inspection or to the bill of lading

None of this requires a supplier, a trip or capital. It requires a specification, one phone call to a customs broker, and the discipline to do it before the exciting part rather than after.