Lighting is one of the categories where the current tariff era can stack up, because decorative and household fixtures are often produced in a relatively concentrated set of overseas factories, and a base duty that was once minor may now sit underneath a heavier country-specific load. The category is also bulky and low-margin per unit, so freight and duty tend to move together, and even a few points of added duty can flip a fixture from profitable to underwater. Lighting SKUs are also easy to misclassify, and the wrong code can attach a meaningfully different rate to a product you have been selling for years.
Representative 2026 estimate stacking base MFN duty (USITC HTS 2026 Rev.10), Section 301 on China-origin goods (USTR), Section 232 on autos and steel/aluminum/copper articles (CRS IN12545), and the 10% Section 122 surcharge that expires 2026-07-24 and is under appeal (Skadden). Your exact per-SKU duty depends on the precise HS code, which MarginGuard resolves from the live HTS schedule once connected. Not legal or customs advice.
Turkey generally ships to the United States under standard most-favored-nation (MFN) duty rates — the baseline schedule applied to normal trading partners without a preferential deal. There is no broad US free-trade agreement with Turkey, so most goods are not expected to get the kind of tariff break a USMCA or Korea-FTA origin would, and the rate you pay is driven mainly by your product's HTS classification rather than the country of origin. For landed-cost purposes that tends to make Turkey roughly duty-neutral versus other MFN-rate origins: the line that moves your cost is the category duty shown in the rate box above (a representative figure — your exact rate depends on your specific HS code), plus freight and any product-specific measures, rather than a country surcharge. One practical consideration is that Turkish-origin goods are generally not subject to the China-specific Section 301 tariffs that can inflate landed cost on Chinese-origin goods, though Turkey can face its own product-specific US measures. This is general guidance, not customs or legal advice; confirm against current US measures for your products.
Turkey can be a reasonable China alternative in the categories where its manufacturing base is established — textiles and apparel, leather, home textiles, certain steel and machined goods, food and personal care — and a common reason cited is what it avoids: standard MFN duty with no China-style Section 301 surcharge layered on top. The trade-off is that Turkey carries its own load rather than being a clean discount. You would typically pay full MFN duty, not a preferential rate, so the base duty line alone is usually no lower than other MFN origins; any savings tend to come from not facing China-specific stacking rather than from a Turkey-specific break. Weigh in freight and lead time from a more distant origin, lira and energy-cost volatility that can swing quoted prices, and product-specific US measures that affect some Turkish sectors more than others (steel and aluminum derivative articles are a recurring example). It is also not a way to route Chinese components and relabel them Turkish: that is transshipment, and origin generally turns on where substantial transformation actually occurs — a determination best confirmed with a licensed customs broker. A practical approach is to treat Turkey as a possible second source where its manufacturing base is deep, run the landed-cost math against your specific HTS line, and verify any duty assumption against current US measures before committing volume. This is general guidance, not customs or legal advice.
That's a single SKU. Across a full catalog the tariff hits every imported product differently depending on its cost and price — which is exactly why margin damage hides until a quarter closes light.
Paste your Shopify URL. In about ten seconds you'll see every SKU that dropped below your target margin after the current Turkey tariffs — and the exact price to charge to recover each one. Free, no login.
Scan your store free →Landed cost = unit cost × (1 + tariff rate). To get back to a target margin M, the recovery price is landed cost ÷ (1 − M). For a $45 lamp from Turkey at a 14% stacked rate, that means charging $41.04 to hold a 40% margin. Round to a clean price point and test it; the point is to stop selling underwater.
The core of lighting classification is HTS heading 9405, which covers luminaires and lighting fittings (lamps, ceiling and wall fixtures, string lights, and their parts) regardless of the light source. The base duty for many finished fixtures is relatively modest, but the rate that actually hits your landed cost tends to be driven by three attributes: the material of the fixture body (a brass or glass lamp may sit at a different subheading than a plastic one), whether the item is a complete fixture versus a part such as a shade or base, and the country of origin, which is what can pull in the heavier current-era load. Light sources themselves can fall outside the heading, which is one place rate surprises tend to come from. The exact per-SKU duty depends on the precise HS code, so two products that look identical on your storefront can carry different rates.
A common lighting pitfall is the LED line: an LED bulb or retrofit lamp is often classified outside the 9405 fixture heading (an electric lamp can fall under a different heading entirely), and an integrated LED module or driver may be pulled toward yet another heading. Merchants who file an entire lighting catalog under one 9405 code because everything ships as a 'lamp' can end up applying the wrong duty to their LED-source items, and because LED products are a growing share of many stores, that single misread can distort the margin on high-volume SKUs. When the bulb and the fixture ship together as one sellable unit, the classification can hinge on which component gives the article its essential character, so it is worth confirming the code per SKU rather than per category.
Lighting assembly is relatively mobile, which can make origin shifting more realistic here than in categories with concentrated raw-material supply, and some Southeast Asian countries already run fixture assembly lines that may change the country-specific load on your landed cost. The catch is that origin for duty purposes generally follows where substantial transformation happens, not where the box ships from, so moving final assembly while still importing the metalwork, glass, and electronics from a high-load origin may not move your rate the way you expect; that analysis is fact-specific. Before committing to a supplier change, price the same fixture against a few candidate origins and confirm the classification holds, since a heavy glass or metal fixture also carries freight cost that can erase a duty saving. This is general guidance, not a customs ruling, and the defensible answer for any specific SKU comes from its actual HS code and origin documentation.
Do string lights and seasonal fairy lights fall under the same heading as a table lamp?
Decorative lighting sets, including string and fairy lights, are generally captured within heading 9405 as lighting fittings, so they typically share the fixture base duty rather than a bulb rate. That said, battery-powered or novelty sets can fall under a different subheading depending on construction, and the country-specific load still applies on top. Confirm the exact code per product, because seasonal SKUs are often imported in bulk and a small rate difference can add up at volume.
Are replacement lampshades and fixture parts dutied differently from a complete lamp?
Parts of lighting fittings, such as standalone shades, bases, and arms, have their own provisions within the 9405 structure and can carry a different rate than the finished fixture they belong to. If you import components and assemble or kit them domestically, you may be classifying the parts rather than the complete lamp, which can change the duty and sometimes the country-of-origin analysis. It is worth treating parts SKUs as their own line in your costing rather than assuming they inherit the finished-fixture rate, and confirming the code per SKU.
My fixtures ship with the bulbs included. Does that change the tariff?
It can. When a fixture and its light source are imported together as one packaged article, classification may turn on which part gives the item its essential character, and an integrated-LED fixture can be treated differently than a traditional lamp sold with a separate replaceable bulb. Because the bulb side may pull in a code outside the 9405 fixture heading, a bundled product can land at a different rate than the bare fixture would. Check the combined article's code rather than assuming it follows the fixture alone.
Does the US have a free-trade agreement with Turkey that lowers my duty?
No. There is no broad US-Turkey free-trade agreement, so most goods are generally expected to enter at standard MFN duty rates rather than a preferential rate. Your duty is set by your product's HTS classification; the figure shown in the rate box above is a representative number for this category, and your exact rate depends on your specific HS code. Any tariff-program savings would depend on a particular program and its rules of origin, not on simply shipping from Turkey. This is general guidance, not customs or legal advice.
Is sourcing from Turkey cheaper on duty than sourcing from China?
It depends on the product, and the meaningful difference is usually not the base duty — it is the China-specific surcharges. Turkish-origin goods generally pay standard MFN duty without the Section 301 stacking that applies to many Chinese-origin products, which can make total landed cost lower even when the base MFN rate is similar. Run the numbers on your exact HS code and compare full landed cost, not just the headline duty, since freight and lead time from Turkey differ from China. This is general guidance, not customs or legal advice.
Are there product-specific US tariffs I should watch for on Turkish goods?
Possibly. Beyond standard MFN duty, certain sectors can face product-specific US measures — steel and aluminum and their derivative articles are a recurring example — and these can apply regardless of the broader trade relationship. Because such measures change and depend on precise product scope, confirm whether your specific items are covered before you price or commit volume. When duty treatment materially affects your margin, verify it against current US measures for your exact HS code rather than relying on a general category figure. This is general guidance, not customs or legal advice.
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