European Union
Hotel furniture enters the EU duty-free, on an A.TR.
We manufacture hotel interiors in Gemlik, Bursa — guestroom casegoods, architectural joinery and upholstery, with soft furnishings and lighting supplied in the same package and installation managed by us on site. Into an EU member state the customs position is simple and good, and the parts that are not simple are the parts this page spends its time on.
Why there is no duty and no origin calculation
Hotel furniture is industrial goods, and industrial goods move inside the EU–Türkiye Customs Union rather than under a free-trade agreement. The consequences are worth stating precisely, because most suppliers get the vocabulary wrong in the first meeting:
The instrument is an A.TR, not a EUR.1
An A.TR movement certificate is raised per consignment, approved by the chamber of commerce in Gemlik and vized electronically by Turkish customs. A buyer or broker asking us for “a EUR.1 for Germany” is asking for the wrong document — EUR.1 belongs to our FTA partners outside the customs union.
Component origin does not change the duty
The A.TR proves free circulation, not origin. Where the board, the hardware or the fabric came from does not enter the calculation, and there is no origin arithmetic to run or fail.
It also does not answer “where is this from”
This is the trap, and it is better raised by us than discovered by you. If you need to prove non-Chinese origin — for trade defence, for a public-procurement content rule, or for your own onward re-export — that is a separate, non-preferential origin question answered by a certificate of origin. An A.TR is not an answer to it.
Duty-free is not paperwork-free
The A.TR, the packing list keyed to room numbers, the invoice and the transport documents travel with each consignment, and the certificate has to be right at the border rather than corrected after it.
EUDR, from 30 December 2026
The EU deforestation regulation starts applying to large and medium operators on 30 December 2026, and furniture is named among the products in scope. On DAP terms the obligation is the importer's: whoever places the goods on the EU market is the operator and lodges the due diligence statement. But that statement cannot be lodged without harvest-plot geolocation for the wood in the product, which only the manufacturer can supply, so it becomes a joint piece of work rather than a clause. We are building that data now, per species and per supplier. Worth knowing before you ask for a DDP price: DDP makes us the operator and moves the whole due-diligence burden onto the factory, which is a different contract and a different price.
Who does what at the border
You are the declarant; we are not. Union Customs Code article 170(2) requires the declarant to be established in the customs territory of the Union, and regular commercial imports of hotel FF&E fit none of the derogations. The only alternative route is indirect representation, and article 77(3) is why forwarders decline it — the representative becomes a co-debtor for the duty alongside us, so you are asked for a bank guarantee and several will simply say no. So we quote DAP to the named place: we manufacture, export-clear at Gemlik, carry the freight and manage the installation, and you or your forwarder file the import entry. One party is responsible for the finished room; the customs entry sits with the party that is legally allowed to make it.
Freight from Gemlik, honestly
By road, through Kapıkule
The land corridor runs Kapıkule into Bulgaria and onward. On the published routing, Belgrade is two to four days from the Marmara loading area; Bursa sits about 250 km closer to the border than İstanbul does. Points further into the union are quoted per load by the haulier rather than read off a table.
By sea, from a working container port
Gemlik is a container port, not a name we borrow from İstanbul. On its NTX service, ONE publishes a direct transit from Gemlik of seventeen days to Felixstowe, eighteen to Antwerp, twenty to Rotterdam and twenty-three to Hamburg.
Where we will not guess
A transhipment routing via Piraeus or Malta may be materially faster than a direct slow loop, and carrier rotations change mid-year. So the transit that goes into your programme comes from the forwarder for that sailing, dated, rather than from a marketing table. There is no published freight index covering Türkiye origins, and we do not quote one.
What the schedule is actually built on
Containers are loaded in installation sequence and labelled by room number, so the site starts fitting from the first container instead of waiting for the last.
The standards a European specification calls up
Upholstery fire performance
EN 1021-1 and EN 1021-2 are the cigarette and match ignition tests; a UK specification will usually call up BS 5852 crib 5 within a BS 7176 hazard package. All of them are tested on the composite — this foam, this interliner, this fabric — so they are decided at material approval and the certificate is issued against the approved build-up. Change the fabric and it lapses.
Seating strength and durability
EN 16139 replaced EN 15373 and was reissued on 23 July 2025, with two use levels rather than three. Quoting EN 15373 in a 2026 specification dates the person writing it. Non-domestic tables are EN 15372:2023.
A strength report is not a fire report
They are separate tests, separate labs and separate money, and the strength tests are destructive — the sample chairs are consumed. Naming both in the specification early is cheaper than discovering the second one late.
Panels and emissions
Emission class belongs to the board and is declared by the panel supplier, not by the furniture maker. We specify it in the build-up and pass the declaration through.
Our nearest European reference
Marriott Belgrade — furniture supplied and fabric specified for a Marriott property, with roughly 1,500 pieces delivered. Serbia is not an EU member state, and we would rather say that than let a flag imply a customs history we do not have. Inside the union our position is the customs union itself, which does not depend on a past shipment.
Marriott Belgrade →How a European project runs
BOQ and drawings
Your bill of quantities and the architect's drawings.
Standards named up front
Fire performance, strength level, emission class — fixed before production, because they are build-up decisions.
Model room
Built and approved before the line opens. Eight stand permanently in our showroom in Gemlik.
Production and QC
Under our own production management in Gemlik.
A.TR and loading
The certificate raised per consignment, containers sequenced and labelled by room number.
Delivery and installation
DAP to the named place, and installation managed by us on site through to a finished room.
Common questions
- What duty will we pay on furniture from Türkiye?
- None. Hotel furniture is industrial goods and moves inside the EU–Türkiye Customs Union on an A.TR movement certificate, duty-free, regardless of where the board or the hardware came from.
- Can you send us a EUR.1?
- For an EU member state the instrument is an A.TR. EUR.1 is for our free-trade partners outside the customs union — a broker asking for one on an EU entry is asking for the wrong document.
- Does the A.TR prove the goods are not Chinese?
- No, and this is worth being clear about. It proves free circulation, not origin. If you need to evidence non-preferential origin, ask for a certificate of origin and we will raise one.
- Who is the importer of record?
- You or your forwarder. Union Customs Code article 170(2) requires the declarant to be established in the union, and indirect representation makes the representative a co-debtor under article 77(3), which is why forwarders decline it. We quote DAP.
- What happens with EUDR?
- From 30 December 2026 furniture is in scope and the operator placing the goods on the EU market lodges the due diligence statement. On DAP that is you — but you cannot lodge it without harvest-plot geolocation for the wood, so we supply that data. A DDP structure would move the operator role to us; ask before assuming either.
- Can you bid our public tender?
- Not as of right. Türkiye is not a party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, so following the Court of Justice's Kolin judgment a Turkish firm cannot invoke the procurement directives; a contracting authority may admit us and may equally exclude us. Hotel FF&E on a grant-funded project is usually bought privately even when the works were tendered, and that is where we are useful.
- Have you delivered inside the EU?
- Not yet. Our delivered programmes are in Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Georgia and Türkiye. Belgrade is the nearest European reference, and Serbia is not a member state.
- What are your lead times?
- Set per project against scope and materials, and fixed in the offer together with the delivery date.
Send the BOQ.
A bill of quantities or a drawing set is enough to start. We come back with the scope we cover, the standards we would specify against, and what the first room takes to build.