The ATA carnet is now the document most widely used by the business community for international operations involving temporary admission of goods.

[3] In 1932, the League of Nations drafted a convention to promote uniform duty-free admission for samples, however, due to WWII, it was never implemented.

During the meetings of the Sixth Session Working Party, which prepared the text of the convention, and following a proposal by the French delegation, some consideration was given to the possibility of introducing a system of triptyques or carnets for samples of value carried by commercial travellers.

On 1 March 1954, the Austrian Government informed the Executive Secretary of GATT that on 1 February 1954 the scheme for the duty-free admission of commercial travellers' samples was put into effect by the Customs Administrations of Austria and Switzerland.

The application of this system was limited to collections of samples on which the customs duties would not exceed 60,000 Austrian schillings or 10,000 Swiss Francs.

[23]"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."

[24][1][25] Its objectives and principles are: In recent years the International Chamber of Commerce has been studying the possibility to digitize the ATA Carnet.

The national guaranteeing organisation can also, with the prior consent of its Customs administration, authorise local chambers to deliver ATA Carnets on its behalf.

[2] In short: Updated 1 September 2024 In the early 1960s, the ATA Carnet was in use in Ivory Coast, France, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia.

[30] Beside the 27 member states of the European Union and member states of the European Free Trade Association, the ATA Carnet is officially in force in Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Lebanon, Macau (China), Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines,[31][32] Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United States of America and Vietnam.

China, for example, while not having signed Annex B6 regarding sporting equipment, will nonetheless accept temporary importation for these goods under its national laws.

[33] Due to bilateral, multilateral or subnational customs agreements, the following cases are possible: Namibia Eswatini Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France ∟  Monaco Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden In virtue of their European Union Customs Union, EU member states delegate their power in areas covered by the convention to the European Union.

Through an extension to the Macao Special Administrative Region of the application of the Customs conventions on Temporary admission to which the Government of the People's Republic China has acceded.

[41] Curacao Sint Maarten Caribbean Netherlands The territorial application is extended to the Dutch Antilles but this extension is not yet implemented since there is no approved issuing and guaranteeing association.

Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France ∟  Monaco Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Belarus Kazakhstan ATA Carnets are not regulated in the Eurasian Customs Union and are not accepted for transit between its countries.

[43] The ATA Carnet allows the business traveller to use a single document for clearing certain categories of goods through customs in several countries without the deposit of import duties and taxes.

The main benefits can be summarised in: Failure to re-export all or some of the goods listed on the Carnet results in the payment of applicable duties and taxes.

ATA Carnets cover the usual and unusual: computers, repair tools, photographic and film equipment, musical instruments, industrial machinery, vehicles, jewellery, clothing, medical appliances, aircraft, race horses, art work, prehistoric relics, ballet costumes and rock group sound systems.

[46] A system similar to the ATA Carnet System generally called Carnet de Passages en Douane China-Taiwan (CPD China-Taiwan) operates on the basis of bilateral agreements between Taiwan (under the name of Chinese Taipei) and a certain number of ATA countries including the EU member states, Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and the United States of America (under the name of TECRO/AIT carnet).