Customs & International Trade Law: 15-Day Objection Windows & Dispute Stages

What to put together now

If a Turkish customs decision has landed, or you want to test your position before the next shipment, this is the material that decides the outcome. Valuation and classification disputes are decided on documents, and the objection window under Article 242 runs from notification.

• Note the date you were notified of the assessment or penalty decision, and keep the notification record with it — the objection period is measured from that date.
• Gather the decision itself: the supplementary assessment (ek tahakkuk), the penalty notice, and any request to recalculate value or classification.
• Pull the customs declarations behind the decision, and check whether the same GTİP code was repeated across earlier entries.
• Assemble the full commercial file matched to each declaration: commercial invoice, sale or supply contract, transport and insurance documents, payment records, and any royalty or licence agreement.
• Check which document was used — A.TR, EUR.1 or certificate of origin — and whether the goods really fall within the industrial scope of the Customs Union or the origin rules of the relevant agreement.
• Confirm which regime the goods were entered under (import, export, transit, inward or outward processing, bonded warehouse, free zone) and whether an AEO / Yetkilendirilmiş Yükümlü authorisation is in place.
• Arrange a power of attorney (vekâletname) signed before a notary abroad or at a Turkish consulate, apostilled, then translated and notarised — with scope broad enough to cover declarations, objections, reconciliation and litigation.