The Office of the United States Trade Representative has set an additional 12.5 percent customs duty on Turkish apparel and textile imports to the US, part of a Section 301 action covering 60 trading partners announced on July 29, 2026.

The decision follows USTR investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 concerning the prohibition and enforcement of restrictions on goods produced through forced labour. Rates for the affected partners range from 10 percent to 12.5 percent. Türkiye landed at the higher band.

For Turkish manufacturers, the tariff is direct and immediate: every textile and apparel shipment to the US market now carries the additional 12.5 percent levy on top of existing duties.

Why did Türkiye miss the quota carve-out?

The sharpest commercial sting lies in what Türkiye did not get. A draft decision released in June, reported by Turkish business daily Ekonomi, had signalled that tariff-rate quotas could be introduced for textile and apparel products from certain countries. Turkish industry sources expected Ankara to be included in that mechanism.

The final text named only four beneficiaries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia. Exports shipped to the United States within the designated quotas from those four countries will not be subject to the Section 301 tariff at all.

Türkiye was excluded from the mechanism entirely. The result is a competitive asymmetry: quota-eligible suppliers in South and Southeast Asia enter the US duty-neutral on in-quota volumes, while Turkish factories absorb a 12.5 percent cost penalty on every shipment.

What is still unresolved?

The decision has entered into force, but the technical details of implementation remain open. Industry representatives are awaiting Federal Register regulations from the USTR that will clarify three points:

• Which products may qualify for exemptions
• Which products will be covered by the tariff-rate quotas
• What quota volumes will apply to the four beneficiary countries

Until those regulations land, sourcing teams pricing Turkish production against Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia or Malaysia face incomplete information: the eventual quota volumes could materially shift how much duty-free access the four carve-out countries actually receive.

What does it mean for sourcing decisions?

For US brands and retailers with programs in Türkiye, the 12.5 percent figure is now a hard input cost, and the question of who absorbs it — vendor, brand or consumer — will play out in upcoming negotiations over price and terms.

For vendors in the four quota countries, the carve-out creates a near-term advantage that depends entirely on quota volumes yet to be published. For Turkish exporters, the gap is structural rather than transitional, with no exemption pathway identified in the final decision.

Attention now shifts to the USTR's Federal Register regulations, which will determine quota sizes, product coverage and any exemption criteria — and with them, the real cost calculus for US-bound apparel sourcing across all five countries.