ATA Carnet for Goods Leaving Turkey for a Fair Abroad: What It Covers and What It Doesn’t

An ATA Carnet is an international customs document used for goods that enter a country temporarily and leave again unchanged after the fair. For goods leaving Turkey for a fair abroad, the carnet covers temporary entry into the destination country and the return to Turkey. Only goods that will return unchanged are listed; consumables are outside its scope. A carnet is valid for one year at most (IHK München, Carnet A.T.A. ↗, in German).

Fair and exhibition goods (Messe- und Ausstellungsgüter) are covered by the carnet (same IHK page). For stand material, Turkey’s Customs General Communiqué (Temporary Admission) Series No. 4, which applies the exhibition-goods annex of the Temporary Admission Convention in Turkey, lists construction and decoration material, including electrical equipment, used in the temporary stands of foreign participants as exhibition goods (TOBB, Customs General Communiqué, Annex 1/A ↗, in Turkish). That text is written for foreign participants coming to Turkey; how stand material leaving Turkey is accepted in the destination country depends on that country’s practice.

What exhibition goods are covered

Products to be displayed, demonstration equipment and goods that will be taken back after the fair are covered by the carnet. In the carnet application, the nature of the goods, their brands and numbers, weight, quantity and value are declared in a packing list (TOBB, how to obtain an ATA Carnet ↗, in Turkish). Which stand part goes under the carnet and which under another regime is determined when the shipping list is drawn up, checking the destination country’s practice.

What cannot be covered by an ATA Carnet

Consumables are not covered by the carnet. IHK also lists goods rented out abroad for a fee and goods processed or repaired abroad among the goods for which a carnet cannot be issued (IHK München ↗, in German).

Not every country taking part in the carnet system accepts carnets for every purpose; acceptance for professional equipment, fair goods and samples varies by country (IHK München ↗, in German). For country-by-country information, TOBB’s ATA country table is consulted (TOBB, ATA countries ↗); the destination country’s rules are checked separately when the shipment is planned.

For passenger-accompanied samples and fair goods, the Ministry of Trade offers an electronic declaration form (Ministry of Trade announcement, 2020 ↗, in Turkish).

Who handles which goods

The participant’s products are outside Inside’s transport and planning; Inside does not transport them and does not act as a contractor in carnet and temporary import procedures. Inside handles only the transport and transfer of the goods belonging to its own project, that is, the stand materials.

Inside receives the participant’s products at the fairground. This makes it unnecessary for the participant’s representatives to be at the fairground a day early just for this. At the end of the fair, it hands the remaining products, on the participant’s behalf, to the carrier of the party the participant names or has an agreement with; it collects the necessary paperwork, photographs the handover and sends it to the participant.