ATA carnet: moving goods temporarily across borders without paying import duty

Key points

• An ATA carnet is a passport for goods: you take them temporarily to a country outside the EU and bring them back unchanged, free of import duty and import VAT.
• It covers three kinds of goods: commercial samples, trade fair and exhibition material, and professional equipment.
• In the Netherlands the Chamber of Commerce issues it, it is valid for one year and around eighty countries accept it.
• You provide security for the duty that would be due in the destination country. If the goods list does not come back complete, that security is called on.
• Every border crossing has to be stamped. A missed stamp is the most common and the most expensive mistake.

Friday afternoon, a truck carrying demo equipment sits at the Swiss border. The trade fair opens on Monday. Customs wants to know whether this is an import, because it is valuable kit and it is entering the Swiss market. Without paperwork the choice is this: pay duty and VAT on half a million euro of equipment that leaves again in four days, or wait.

The ATA carnet exists for exactly this problem. Even so it is the least used trade document there is, and that is because most importers and exporters think only in terms of permanent flows. Temporary movement has its own rules, and they sit apart from the ordinary clearance you go through on a sale.

The document is simpler than its reputation suggests.

What is an ATA carnet exactly?

An ATA carnet is an international customs document that replaces the ordinary import and export declarations for goods crossing a border temporarily. Instead of declaring again in every country, you travel with a booklet of voucher sheets that customs stamps at each border.

The basis is the ATA Convention, later extended by the Istanbul Convention. Around eighty countries take part, including every major trading partner: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Japan, China, India, Turkey and the Gulf states. Where a country is not in the system the carnet drops away and you fall back on temporary admission with security lodged locally.

In the Netherlands the Chamber of Commerce issues the carnet. It is valid for one year from issue and within that year you may make several trips on it, to different countries, provided all the listed goods travel and return each time.

Which goods does it cover, and which does it not?

Three categories, and the line between them is sharper than it looks.

• Commercial samples shown to business contacts abroad, on condition that they are not sold or consumed.
• Trade fair and exhibition material: stand construction, displays, demonstration models, presentation material.
• Professional equipment: camera and sound gear, musical instruments, measuring and test equipment, tools for installation or maintenance on site.

What it does not cover is anything that stays behind. Consumables, promotional material you hand out, parts you fit at the customer, goods you take along to sell. For those flows you file an ordinary export declaration and the recipient handles the import.

The confusing cases sit in between. An engineer travelling to Norway with tools and with replacement parts needs a carnet for the tools and a normal export declaration for the parts. Two flows, two documents, in the same van.

How does a carnet trip run in practice?

You start with the goods list, and that list is the whole document. Every item gets a description, quantity, weight, value and country of origin. Be specific: make, type and serial number. A line reading “assorted tools, 1 set” is an invitation to trouble on the way back, because customs has to be able to establish that what returns is what left.

The value you declare drives the security. The Chamber of Commerce calculates a premium or deposit based on the duties and charges that would be due in the countries visited if the goods stayed there. Value too high and you tie up more security than you need to. Value too low and the foreign customs authority may refuse the carnet. Work from real market value and keep the commodity code per line to hand, because that is what the rates hang on.

After that it is a matter of stamps. On leaving the EU customs stamps the exportation sheet. On entering the destination country, the importation sheet. On leaving there, the re-exportation sheet, and on returning to the EU, the re-importation sheet. Four stamps per trip, and every one of them belongs in the booklet.

What goes wrong, and what does it cost?

Almost always a missing stamp. The driver carried on because the barrier was up, or the customs post was unmanned overnight, or somebody assumed the stamp on departure was enough. Without the re-exportation stamp the destination country may take the view that the goods stayed there, and a claim on the security follows.

That claim runs through the national guaranteeing chain to the Chamber of Commerce and eventually to you. Repair after the fact is possible, with evidence that the goods really did come back, but it is a process of months in which your money sits frozen. The import duty plus local VAT on a 200,000 euro equipment set runs above 50,000 euro in many countries. That is the size of the exposure behind one missed stamp.

Our position: instruct the driver in writing, border by border, naming the post where he has to stop. Relying on the routine of a haulier who does this twice a year is the most expensive saving available.

When do you pick something else instead?

Where the shipment goes to a country outside the system, you work with temporary admission under local rules, usually against a deposit or bank guarantee on the spot. Where the material travels within the EU and only passes through a third country, over Swiss territory for instance, a transit document is often simpler and cheaper than a carnet.

And on high frequency traffic with fixed equipment to the same country it is worth looking at a standing temporary admission arrangement there. What is available differs per customs administration and is not documented centrally, so we test that case by case.

Frequently asked questions

Q: How long is an ATA carnet valid?

Ans: One year from the date of issue. Within that year you may make several trips to different member countries. The destination country can set a shorter period within which the goods must leave again, and that appears on the stamp.

Q: Can I sell goods off the list during the trip?

Ans: No. The carnet rests on the assumption that everything returns unchanged. If you do want to sell, you have to import the goods properly in that country and pay the duty, and you arrange that locally with customs before you leave.

Q: What does an ATA carnet cost?

Ans: The Chamber of Commerce issuing fee plus a premium or deposit that depends on the declared value and the countries visited. Issue itself normally takes a few working days, so do not apply for it in the week of the fair.

Q: What happens if a stamp is missing?

Ans: The country where the stamp is missing may assume the goods stayed there and claim the duties and charges from the guaranteeing chain. You can contest that with alternative proof of return, but it takes months and your security stays tied up meanwhile.

Q: Does an ATA carnet work for the United Kingdom?

Ans: Yes. Since the UK sits outside the EU customs union the carnet has become one of the most used solutions there for exhibition material, measuring equipment and engineers’ tools.

Do you regularly take equipment, stand material or samples out of the EU? We assess whether a carnet is the right route, draw up the goods list so that it holds on the way back, and handle the customs declarations for the goods that do stay behind. If you want to know the duty at stake first, run it through the import duty calculator or get in touch before the shipment leaves.