The Merchandise Passport

Waive VAT

Reduce Travel Friction & Expense;
Corporate Business Travelers Save Duty, Tax & Time

The Merchandise Passport waives payment of import duty and tax (VAT, GST) on temporarily imported goods including hand-carried items that business travelers may put in checked luggage or carry on board a flight.

The Merchandise Passport is a Carnet or ATA Carnet (pronounced kar-nay); an international customs and import-export document. It is used to clear customs in 87 countries and territories without paying duties and import taxes on merchandise that will be re-exported within 12 months.

The Assessment illustrates the financial advantage of using The Merchandise Passport to reduce costs and travel friction when traveling with goods, equipment or sales samples through foreign customs. See our new V.P. of Global Carnet Operations explain how it works.

ATA Carnets: The Merchandise Passport 1:30

More of the Story: Savings Calculation

For a business traveler hand-carrying a $21,000 medical device to the U.K. that's a $4,500 savings.

Even if VAT recovery is available and utilized (thus reducing these savings), using a Merchandise Passport means the value added taxes are never paid in the first place. So there is time and expense saved on VAT recovery as well. Additionally, VAT recovery doesn't reclaim the import duties so that's not an expense that can be recovered without utilizing some form of temporary import customs clearance like an ATA Carnet.

Carnets are often called Merchandise Passports for boomerang freight® since all goods on a carnet must return to their country of export.