Carnet System Expands in Indonesia and Mongolia

Effective May 15th, 2015 Indonesia becomes the 84th country to join the ATA Carnet system. Indonesia begins accepting and issuing carnets for Professional Equipment and Exhibitions and Fairs (not Commercial Samples) after a long process reported here in August of 2013. Indonesia is the 3rd largest country in Asia, after China and India, and becomes the 20th Asian country (not including Taiwan) to participate in the International Chamber of Commerce-managed carnet system.

 Mongolia, a carnet country since April 2004, will now accept carnets for Commercial Samples. Previously they were only signatories to the Professional Equipment and Exhibitions and Fairs conventions.

The stages of participation of Indonesia and Mongolia reflect the caution which some countries use when initially signing on to the ATA Carnet convention. In both cases noted here the countries elected initially only to participate in Professional Equipment and Exhibitions and Fairs. After several years of experience with ATA Carnets Mongolia is now ready to add Commercial Samples to the categories of goods they will accept on carnets. There remain two large participants in the system, China and India, that only participate in Exhibitions and Fairs. Carnet users frequently request broader use of the carnet from China and India however there is no indication of when these two countries will expand their participation in the carnet system in the near future.