China clears Australian customs duty-free under ChAFTA. Turkey doesn't have a trade agreement with Australia and faces a longer sea route besides. If you're evaluating Turkey for an Australian knitwear programme, the tariff and freight case doesn't favour it — here's what does, and an honest look at where China simply wins.
Under the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), tariffs on Chinese-made apparel were phased down to 0% by January 2019. Turkey has no free trade agreement with Australia, so a Turkish-made jumper clears customs under Australia's general tariff — commonly around 5% for knitwear (HS Chapter 61). Add a materially longer sea route from Turkish ports to Melbourne or Sydney than the direct East Asia lanes China ships on, and the two big variables that often favour Turkey elsewhere — duty and transit time — both point toward China here. This is not the UK or EU story. For an Australian brand, the case for Turkey has to be built on capability, quality control and supply-chain diversification, not on cost. This guide lays out the numbers honestly, then explains where Turkey earns its place anyway.
| Factor | Turkey (No FTA) | China (ChAFTA) |
|---|---|---|
| Free trade agreement with Australia | None | ChAFTA, in force since Dec 2015 |
| Import duty — knitwear (HS 61) | ~5% general tariff | 0% (fully phased in from 1 Jan 2019, qualifying origin) |
| Origin proof required | Not applicable — general rate applies automatically | Certificate of Origin under ChAFTA |
| Ocean transit to Melbourne/Sydney | ~35–45 days (Mediterranean → Suez/Indian Ocean, often via a transshipment hub) | ~24–28 days (direct East Asia service) |
| Typical MOQ | 250 per colour/size | 500–1,000+ per style |
| Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) reporting | Single site, visitable, easy to document | Often multi-tier, harder to audit |
Indicative — confirm your exact HS8 tariff line and current rate with the Australian Border Force working tariff or a licensed customs broker before quoting landed cost.
Because China gets both the duty exemption and the shorter freight lane into Australia, the two advantages stack rather than offset each other. Indicative figures for a fine-gauge merino crewneck, 250-unit run, landed into Melbourne:
| Cost element | Turkey | China |
|---|---|---|
| FOB unit price (250 units, fine merino) | $28 | $22 |
| Ocean freight (per unit, LCL estimate) | $4.20 | $2.10 |
| Import duty | $1.40 (~5% of FOB) | $0 (0% ChAFTA) |
| Insurance + handling | $0.55 | $0.45 |
| Estimated landed cost / unit | ~$34.15 | ~$24.55 |
| Transit time in working capital | ~35–45 days | ~24–28 days |
On this example, China lands close to 30% cheaper per unit, faster, with less capital tied up in transit. We're not going to dress that up — for a price-only decision on a comparable garment, China is the stronger commercial answer for an Australian buyer today. The gap narrows as the FOB differential narrows (a highly technical WHOLEGARMENT construction, for instance, is harder to source cheaply out of China at all), but it rarely closes entirely on duty and freight alone.
Given the above, Turkey isn't the right call for every Australian brand or every style. Where it does make sense, it's usually for one of these reasons — not price:
Our Gaziantep factory is built around WHOLEGARMENT knit-to-shape and fully-fashioned production on Shima Seiki and Stoll machines — no cutting, no side seams. This is a specific capability, not a general claim: it's harder to source cheaply out of a Chinese cut-and-sew factory, and the FOB gap narrows considerably once you're comparing like for like on true fully-fashioned work.
Our minimum is 250 units per colour, per size — a single style in 3 colours and 5 sizes is 3,750 units total, the real commitment. Against a typical China minimum of 500–1,000+ per style, that's a smaller bet for an Australian brand piloting a new supplier or testing a capsule before committing a full season's volume.
Plenty of Australian brands aren't trying to beat China on price — they're trying to reduce how much of their range sits with one supplier in one country. A Turkish line running alongside an existing China programme adds geographic and political diversification, even if the unit cost on that line is higher.
You deal with the factory owner, not a trading company or an agent adding a margin and a communication step. For brands that value tight design control, sample turnaround and a single point of accountability on quality, that structure has value independent of the tariff line.
The tariff schedule under ChAFTA reached its final stage years ago and isn't currently under renegotiation. Australian brands building a multi-year sourcing plan should treat China's 0% duty as stable for the foreseeable future, not as a temporary advantage.
Between 2020 and 2023, China applied informal trade restrictions to a range of Australian exports — barley, wine, coal, lobster — during a period of diplomatic tension. Most of that was resolved by 2023–24 and textiles were never targeted. But the episode is a reminder that trade terms between the two countries can move for reasons that have nothing to do with commercial logic — part of why some Australian brands now keep a non-China option qualified, even at a cost premium.
Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since late 2023 have pushed many carriers to route Mediterranean-origin cargo around the Cape of Good Hope instead of through Suez. For Turkey-to-Australia shipments this can add further time and cost on top of an already longer lane than China's — worth checking with your freight forwarder at the point of quoting, not assumed from older transit figures.
Entities with consolidated revenue over $100 million must report annually under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) on the risk of forced labour in their operations and supply chains. A single-site, visitable Turkish factory is structurally simpler to document than a multi-tier Chinese supply chain — a genuine, if secondary, factor for larger Australian retailers.
For Australia specifically, China's case is stronger than it is for a UK, EU or even Canadian buyer, because duty and freight both favour it. We won't argue otherwise:
If landed cost is the only variable that matters and the garment is a standard construction either factory can produce well, China's ChAFTA duty exemption plus shorter freight lane is a real, structural advantage into Australia. Run both quotes — the gap is usually visible before you get to sample stage.
China's factory scale suits big-box and mass-retail order sizes in a way most Turkish flat-knit factories — built around 250-unit MOQs and mid-volume premium or private-label work — aren't structured to match.
Silk and some technical performance fibres have deeper, more established supplier networks in China. If a yarn isn't readily available through Turkish spinners, that's a real constraint to check before committing a style to a Turkey programme.
No. Unlike the UK's FTA with Turkey or the EU–Turkey customs union, Australia has no bilateral trade agreement with Turkey. Turkish-made knitwear enters Australia under the general tariff schedule, the same one that applies to most non-FTA countries.
Not for the landed-cost line — on a like-for-like basic style, that usually favours China. The case for Turkey rests on WHOLEGARMENT and fully-fashioned capability, a smaller 250-unit MOQ, a direct relationship with the factory owner, and reducing how much of your range sits in one country. If none of those apply to your programme, the honest answer is that China is likely the stronger commercial choice for that style.
Australian trade policy is set by government and can shift. As of 2026, there's no confirmed move to alter ChAFTA's apparel tariff schedule, which has been fully phased in since 2019. Brands planning multi-year sourcing should treat it as stable, while still keeping an eye on the broader Australia–China relationship, which has had periods of volatility outside of textiles.
Build it as: (FOB × units) + ocean freight + duty (× FOB value) + insurance and Australian customs clearance fees, divided by units. Run both sides with real quotes, not the indicative figures above. Then weigh MOQ risk (capital tied up in the minimum order), transit working capital (days in transit × value × your cost of capital), and how much a second, non-China source is worth to your risk profile — that last one doesn't show up in the spreadsheet, but it's often the deciding factor.
Send your spec and approximate volume. We'll quote ex-works on a 250/colour-size capsule so you can build your own Australian landed-cost model and compare it honestly against what you're already paying for China. No agency, no minimum beyond what's on the quote.