Turkey
USA trade laneTurkish towels are a category of their own in US retail. About 90% of Türkiye's towel, bathrobe and bedding production is in Denizli, whose mills exported some $410 million of towels, $130 million of bathrobes and $250 million of bedding in the first eleven months of 2025. Bursa is the other towel and bathrobe center, and Uşak makes blankets. Many mills are integrated from yarn to sewing, which shortens lead times and makes the supply chain easier to trace.
The compliance work is heavier than the freight. Cotton is a priority sector for UFLPA enforcement, and Türkiye imports more cotton than it grows, so a mill's fiber and yarn can come from several countries. Every textile entry needs the manufacturer identification code of the right mill, labels must meet FTC rules, and since 24 July 2026 Turkish goods pay an additional Section 301 duty on top of the ordinary textile duty.
We work through WCA partner agents in Türkiye; AGF has no office there. Our partner consolidates mill shipments and loads at Aliağa or İzmir, or at Gemlik near Bursa. AGF runs the US end from Glendale: we review the cotton-tracing documents before booking, our licensed customs brokers file the entry, and delivery runs to your distribution center or through our partner warehouses in Southern California.
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Shipping Towels & Home Textiles from Turkey to USA
Towels and bedding ship in cartons and usually fill a container by volume before they reach its weight limit, so the 40ft High Cube is the standard box. As a planning guide, a 40HC holds roughly 20,000 standard bath towels in cartons — fewer heavy hotel-weight towels, many more hand towels and washcloths — and vacuum packing or bale compression raises the count. Bathrobes are bulkier; bedding sets pack densely. The mill's packing list decides.
Goods from Denizli and Uşak reach Aliağa or İzmir by truck, and Bursa ships through Gemlik. On a direct service the East Coast is roughly two to three weeks away — about 14 days from Aliağa and 15 from Gemlik to New York on one carrier's direct loop — and the West Coast roughly four to six weeks. Plan orders around the US retail calendar — summer beach towels, back-to-college, the holiday season and January white sales — and around Turkish holidays: many mills close for several days at Ramazan and Kurban Bayramı, whose dates move about eleven days earlier each year.
- 40ft High Cube for full loads; towels fill by volume before weight
- Several mills consolidated into one container and one entry by our partner
- Carton marks matched to the labels and the invoice; labels sewn in at the mill
- Moisture protection — cotton takes up humidity on summer sailings
- LCL for samples and first runs; air from Istanbul for urgent replenishment
What Drives the Cost
- Duty: the ordinary textile rate for the HTS line plus the Section 301 layer on Turkish goods — confirmed per line at quoting
- Fiber content and construction — terry, flat-woven peshtemal, knit or woven robe — which drive classification
- Packing density: towel weight, carton size and compression per container
- Compliance work: cotton-tracing records, testing where a buyer requires it, and labels
- Consolidating several mills into one container and one entry
- US delivery: drayage, transloading or storage in a partner warehouse
HS Codes and Duty Notes
Classification guidance only — duty rates change and depend on your exact product. Our licensed customs brokers verify every code before you commit to an order.
| HS Code | Products | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 6302.60 | Toilet and kitchen linen of cotton terry — bath, hand and beach towels, washcloths | The core line for Turkish towels. Origin is where the terry fabric was woven, so the MID is the weaving mill's. Duty depends on the 10-digit line; confirmed at quoting. |
| 6302.91 | Other toilet and kitchen linen of cotton — flat-woven peshtemal (hammam) towels, waffle towels | Not terry, so a different line; describe the weave accurately on the invoice. |
| 6302.21 / 6302.31 | Bed linen of cotton — sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases, printed or plain | Napped and not napped, printed and plain have separate lines; blends with man-made fibers classify elsewhere. |
| 6207.91 / 6208.91 | Woven cotton bathrobes and dressing gowns, men's and women's — including terry robes | Apparel, so origin is where the robe was assembled, and the clothing flammability standard applies. |
| 6107.91 / 6108.91 | Knitted cotton bathrobes, men's and women's | Knit and woven robes fall in different chapters — the fabric construction decides. |
| 6301 | Blankets and throws — cotton, wool or synthetic, much of it from Uşak | Origin follows the fabric, as for towels; fiber content by generic name and percentage on the label. |
Regulations and Compliance
UFLPA and cotton tracing
Under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, CBP presumes that goods made wholly or partly in Xinjiang, or by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List, are made with forced labor, and the presumption follows Xinjiang cotton into yarn and fabric made anywhere. Türkiye imports more cotton than it grows, mainly from Brazil and the United States, and mills also buy yarn, so the fiber origin of each order matters. CBP's June 2026 importer guidance asks for records tracing the cotton from the bale to the finished product: a flow chart and map of the numbered production steps, every company at each step, and purchase orders, invoices and payment records that link them. After a detention the importer has 30 days to respond.
Country of origin and the MID
For towels, bed linen, blankets and other made-ups of headings 6301 to 6306, US origin rules follow the fabric: the origin is the country where it was woven or knitted, not where it was cut and hemmed, while bathrobes take the origin of the country where they were assembled. Every textile entry must name the manufacturer through a manufacturer identification code (MID) built from the name and address of the company that performed that origin-conferring step — so a towel woven by one Denizli mill and sewn by another carries the weaving mill's MID. An entry with a wrong MID can be rejected.
FTC textile labeling
Under the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act, towels, washcloths, sheets, blankets and robes need a label giving the fiber content by generic name and percentage, the country of origin, and the manufacturer or US seller — by company name or RN number. The Care Labeling Rule covers apparel, so robes also need care instructions, and most US buyers ask for them on towels and bedding as well. Order the labels into production — relabeling in a US warehouse is slow and costly.
The Section 301 duty on Turkish goods
Since 24 July 2026 most products of Türkiye pay an additional Section 301 duty on top of the ordinary duty, and towels, bedding and robes were not on the exemption lists when we checked in October 2026. US textile duties are already among the higher ones in the tariff schedule. Because the layer follows origin, a towel woven outside Türkiye and only finished there is not Turkish for duty purposes. Our licensed customs brokers confirm the total per HTS line at quoting.
No quotas or visas
US textile quotas ended when the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing expired at the start of 2005, and Turkish textiles need no quota or export visa. What applies instead is the duty for each line, the Section 301 layer, labeling rules and forced-labor enforcement on cotton — and CBP checks textile origin and fiber declarations closely.
Flammability rules for robes
Bathrobes are clothing and must meet the federal flammability standard for clothing textiles (16 CFR 1610). Children's robes in sizes up to 14 count as children's sleepwear, with stricter flammability standards and children's-product certification — check the requirements before ordering them.
Door-to-Door Import Service
We start with the product list — fiber content, construction and the mills involved — which sets the HTS lines, the origin and the MID for each item.
Before booking we review the mill's cotton-tracing documents — bale records, yarn invoices and the production steps — against CBP's guidance, and flag gaps while they can still be fixed.
Our WCA partner collects from the mills in Denizli, Bursa, Uşak or elsewhere, checks carton counts, marks and labels against the order, consolidates and supervises loading.
We file the ISF at least 24 hours before loading and book the sailing from Aliağa, İzmir or Gemlik.
Our licensed customs brokers file the entry with the correct MID, fiber description and origin, and pay the duty and the Section 301 layer.
Our drayage and trucking partners deliver to your distribution center, or the goods go into one of our partner warehouses in Southern California for storage and distribution.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the tariffs on towels imported from Turkey?
Can Turkish cotton towels be detained under the UFLPA?
What labels do towels need to be sold in the USA?
How many towels fit in a 40ft container?
What is a MID code and why does it matter for Turkish textiles?
Are there quotas on textiles from Turkey?
Towels & Home Textiles is just one example. AGF ships whatever your business moves — on this lane and beyond. If your commodity isn't covered by one of our guides, tell us what you ship and we'll build the logistics around it.
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