The ATA Carnet, often referred to as the "Passport for goods", is an international customs document that allows the temporary admission of non-perishable goods without payment of import duties and taxes, generally for up to one year. It simplifies customs procedures by combining the customs declaration and financial guarantee into a single document that can be used for multiple border crossings. The acronym ATA is a combination of French and English terms "Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission".
The ATA Carnet is jointly administered by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) through its World Chambers Federation.
History
Background
Early suggestions for an international temporary admission scheme were made during the 1900 and 1913 Congresses on Customs regulations, examined by Customs experts convened in 1923 under the auspices of the League of Nations, but no positive result was achieved. In 1932 the League of Nations drafted a convention to promote uniform duty-free admission for samples, but it was never implemented owing to WWII.
In 1952, building on the ICC's 1949 report "Invisible Barriers to Trade and Travel", the contracting parties to GATT adopted an International Convention to Facilitate the Importation of Commercial Samples and Advertising Material, proposed and drafted by the ICC. The convention, based on a draft the League of Nations had developed in 1935, came into effect in November 1955.
The Austria–Switzerland triptyque
During the meetings of the Sixth Session Working Party that prepared the convention's text, the French delegation proposed considering a system of triptyques or carnets for samples carried by commercial travellers, to alleviate the financial and administrative burdens on firms sending representatives abroad. The Working Party was told that such a scheme had already been worked out, on a bilateral basis, between Austria and Switzerland, though it had not yet been put into force. On 1 March 1954 the Austrian Government informed the Executive Secretary of GATT that the scheme had been put into effect by the two countries' Customs Administrations on 1 February 1954: commercial travellers and agents could import samples between Switzerland and Austria temporarily duty-free under a customs triptyque, without depositing import duties, guaranteed by an Austrian insurance company on the Austrian side and a Swiss company on the Swiss side. The scheme was capped at 60,000 Austrian schillings or 10,000 Swiss Francs per collection of samples, with one year allowed for re-exportation.
The ECS Carnet
Building on this convention and the Austria–Switzerland triptyque — and reportedly following an initiative of Charles Aubert, director of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Geneva and future first director of the Chambres de Commerce Suisses — the Customs Co-operation Council, with the International League of Commercial Travellers and Agents and the ICC's International Information Bureau of Chambers of Commerce, prepared the Customs Convention Regarding the E.C.S. Carnets for Commercial Samples, which entered into force on 3 October 1957. The new convention introduced the E.C.S. Carnet — the initials standing for the bilingual Echantillons Commerciaux/Commercial Samples — an optional substitute for national temporary importation papers that replaced any deposit or guarantee Customs authorities might otherwise require. Its first signatories were West Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey, with the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acting as depositary.
The international guarantee mechanism behind the ECS Carnet was organised by the International Bureau of Chambers of Commerce (BIICC), a department of the ICC, under BIICC Protocol Document 550/52 of 2 November 1955. This established a chain of national guaranteeing organisations — one per territory, each recognised by its own Customs authority — under which a guarantee was automatically substituted from one country's organisation to the next as goods crossed a border, with a reimbursement procedure between organisations where a claim arose.
By 1960 the ECS Carnet's success was clear enough that the Customs Co-operation Council told the GATT Executive Secretary that the "satisfactory results obtained" — 15,600 carnets issued that year, worth a combined US$16,320,000 — had "induced the international trading community to propose that the facilities offered by the ECS Carnet Convention should be extended over the widest possible field", an idea the ICC supported.
The ATA Convention
A preliminary enquiry into the usefulness of a temporary duty-free admission document, carried out by the Customs Cooperation Council with GATT, UNESCO and the ICC, found general support for a document on the lines of the ECS carnet that could also cover professional equipment and goods for exhibitions and fairs. Since conventions on those two subjects were already being prepared separately, it was thought desirable for the new carnet convention to be ready alongside them, or as soon as possible afterward. Accordingly, building on the ECS Carnet's success, the Customs Co-operation Council adopted the Customs Convention on the ATA Carnet for the Temporary Admission of Goods in 1961; it entered into force on 30 July 1963. ATA Carnets are regarded as an upgraded version of ECS Carnets, extending the same mechanism beyond commercial samples. More specific conventions were subsequently worked out for each type of applicable good. At its 47th/48th Sessions in June 1976, the Council recommended that Contracting Parties to the ECS Convention denounce it as duplicating the ATA Convention; 21 countries have since deposited instruments of denunciation, leaving Haiti as the sole remaining Contracting Party.
"The States signatory to this Convention, convinced that the adoption of common procedures for the temporary duty-free importation of goods would afford considerable advantages to international commercial and cultural activities and would secure a higher degree of harmony and uniformity in the customs system of the Contracting Parties." – (Preamble of the A.T.A. Convention)
Alongside the Convention itself, the BIICC organised the corresponding international guarantee chain for ATA Carnets through two companion instruments. The Protocol on the organisation of an international customs deposits in respect of ATA Carnets (Document 550/212), adopted on 22 January 1962, established the reciprocal guarantee mechanism between national chamber organisations: once approved by its own Customs authority, each could guarantee duties on goods sent by its nationals to a country with another signatory organisation, with the destination organisation's guarantee automatically substituted for that of the country of origin as goods crossed each border.World Chambers Federation, Protocol on the organisation of an international customs deposits in respect of ATA Carnets, Doc. 550/212 Rev. 2, 20 December 2001, Articles 1, 3 and 6. ICC internal document. The companion Statement on the ATA System (Document 550/521), first adopted on 16 March 1980, sets out the chain's terms in more detail — defining the issuing chamber of commerce, the national guaranteeing organisation and the WCF international guaranteeing organisation — and requires beneficiaries to undertake to re-export goods within the time limit, reimburse any sums paid on their behalf, and provide security (an insurance indemnity, bank guarantee or cash deposit) before a Carnet is issued, covering the highest possible import duties plus 10 per cent.World Chambers Federation, Statement on the ATA System adopted by the WCF, Doc. 550/521 Rev. 1, 20 December 2001, Articles 1, 4 and 6. ICC internal document. Both instruments were revised on 13 September 1988 and again on 7 March 1997, the latter revision reflecting the renaming of the BIICC to the World Chambers Federation (WCF) and of the working party "ATA System" to the World ATA Carnet Council (WATAC).World Chambers Federation, Protocol on the organisation of an international customs deposits in respect of ATA Carnets, Doc. 550/212 Rev. 2, 20 December 2001, footnote (*); Statement on the ATA System adopted by the WCF, Doc. 550/521 Rev. 1, 20 December 2001, footnote (*). ICC internal documents.
The Istanbul Convention
Between 1950 and 1970 there was a proliferation of international Conventions, Recommendations, Agreements and other instruments on temporary admission, creating confusion for the international business community and complicating the work of Customs. In the early 1990s the WCO drafted a worldwide Convention on temporary admission to combine 13 existing temporary admission agreements into a single international instrument, namely:
Customs Convention on the ATA carnet for the temporary admission of goods (ATA Convention), Brussels, 6 December 1961 Customs Convention concerning facilities for the importation of goods for display or use at exhibitions, fairs, meetings or similar events, Brussels, 8 June 1961 Customs Convention on the temporary importation of professional equipment, Brussels, 8 June 1961 European Convention on Customs treatment of pallets used in international transport, Geneva, 9 December 1960 Customs Convention on the temporary importation of packings, Brussels, 6 October 1960 Articles 2 to 11 and Annexes 1 (paragraphs 1 and 2) to 3 to the Customs Convention on Containers, Geneva, 2 December 1972 Articles 3, 5 and 6 (1.b and 2) of the International Convention to facilitate the importation of commercial samples and advertising material, Geneva, 7 November 1952 Customs Convention on welfare material for seafarers, Brussels, 1 December 1964 Customs Convention on the temporary importation of scientific equipment, Brussels, 11 June 1968 Customs Convention on the temporary importation of pedagogic material, Brussels, 8 June 1970 Articles 2 and 5 of the Convention concerning Customs facilities for touring, New York, 4 June 1954 Additional Protocol to the Convention concerning Customs facilities for touring, relating to the importation of tourist publicity documents and material, New York, 4 June 1954 Customs Convention on the temporary importation of private road vehicles, New York, 4 June 1954 Customs Convention on the temporary importation of commercial road vehicles, Geneva, 18 May 1956 Customs Convention on the temporary importation for private use of aircraft and pleasure boats, Geneva, 18 May 1956
The Convention on Temporary Admission — the Istanbul Convention — was adopted by the WCO on 26 June 1990 and entered into force on 27 November 1993.Convention on temporary admission. Concluded at Istanbul on 26 June 1990. World Customs Organization. https://www.wcoomd.org/-/media/wco/public/global/pdf/about-us/legal-instruments/conventions-and-agreements/istanbul/istanbul_legal_text_eng.pdf?la=en Its objectives and principles are:
To devise a single instrument for the simplification and harmonization of temporary admission formalities, replacing all the existing Conventions or Recommendations dealing solely or principally with temporary admission. The subjects covered by the former Conventions are now covered by the Annexes to the Istanbul Convention. Each Annex authorizes the temporary admission of goods imported for a specific purpose — for example, Annex B.1 covers goods for display or use at fairs or exhibitions. This avoids the need for any future instrument on temporary admission by creating a framework into which new categories of goods needing temporary admission facilities can be incorporated. Goods imported duty-free cannot remain indefinitely in the country of temporary importation. The period fixed for re-exportation is laid down in each Annex.