A.TR Certificates in electronic format
A.TR certificates are one of the two types of documents used in EU-Turkey trade that allow goods to benefit from duty reductions or exemptions when imported between the two territories. While EUR.1 certificates guarantee the origin of agricultural goods and steel products under the specific agreements signed to regulate their trade between the EU and Turkey, A.TR movement certificates confirm that the remaining industrial goods (of chapters 1-24 of the Harmonized System) are in free circulation within the EU-Turkey Customs Union, simplifying the trade process between the two regions.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic made the hand-signed, physically-stamped paper documents impossible to enforce. In response, the EU and its partner countries adopted exceptional measures on the presentation of proofs of preferential origin for the duration of the the COVID-19 crisis and ensured the full implementation of preferential trade agreements.
Since then, customs authorities of EU Member States and their partner countries, including Turkey, have accepted electronically issued movement certificates with digital signatures.
When these exceptional measures were suspended in February 2024, Turkish authorities resumed issuing A.TR movement of goods certificates with wet ink (manual) signature. However the DG Taxation and Customs Union of the EU Commission determined that the concept of “signature” can be interpreted as electronic signatures in the form of a QR code.
To provide clarity, the EU-Turkey Customs Cooperation Committee is preparing a Decision, which will provide for acceptance (with retroactive effect applicable to 8 July 2024), of A.TR movement certificates issued electronically as of that date, when presented at import with a QR code but without a wet ink signature.
In the meantime, the EU Commission issued an Information Note inviting customs administrations of EU Member States to accept electronically issued A.TR movement certificates, when presented at import, with a QR code and without a wet-ink (or manual) signature, as from 8 July 2024, pending the expected adoption of the decision.