A carnet has to be opened before your equipment ships. Not when it lands, not when customs asks. Before. That single sentence is the most expensive thing most international exhibitors learn late.
If you are bringing a machine to NPE2027 and taking it home again, you are temporarily importing goods into the United States, and there are two ordinary routes for doing that. Choosing between them is not difficult. Choosing late is.
This is general guidance from an exhibit house, not customs advice. Your freight forwarder and your customs broker are the people who file, and they are the people to confirm this against for your specific equipment.
The problem both routes solve
Bringing goods into a country normally means duty and import taxes. But a machine that arrives for a four-day show and leaves again has not been sold, consumed, or put into commerce. Charging full import duty on it would be absurd, so there are mechanisms that let goods enter temporarily without that liability, on the condition that they leave again.
Both routes below do that. They differ in how they are documented and how well they travel.
The ATA Carnet
A carnet is often described as a passport for goods. It is an internationally recognised document, issued in your home country before departure, listing the equipment covered and allowing it to enter participating countries temporarily without duty.
- ✓It is issued at home, in advanceYou obtain it from the issuing body in your own country before the goods ship. It cannot be created after the equipment has left.
- ✓It covers multiple countries and multiple tripsThis is the real advantage. If your machine goes to NPE, then to another show elsewhere, one document can carry it.
- ✓It is backed by a security deposit or guaranteeHeld against the possibility that the goods do not leave. Returned when the carnet is properly discharged.
- ✓It has to be stamped correctly at every crossingBoth directions. An unstamped carnet is how a returned machine turns into a duty claim months later.
- ✓It is time limitedTypically valid for a defined period from issue. Equipment staying longer than the validity needs a different plan.
For an exhibitor whose machine goes home after the show, and especially one who exhibits internationally more than once, the carnet is usually the cleanest route.
The temporary importation bond
A TIB is the US-specific alternative. Rather than an international document issued at home, it is an arrangement made on entry into the United States, under which goods are admitted temporarily without duty against a bond, on the undertaking that they will be exported within a defined period.
It is arranged by your customs broker, it is US only, and it does not travel to the next country the way a carnet does. For a single US show with equipment that goes straight home, it is a normal and workable route.
Choosing between them
The equipment tours: NPE and then another international show. Or when you expect to bring the same machine back to the US again.
This is a single US entry, the goods go straight home, and your broker prefers it for your commodity.
One document, many borders, predictable process, returned deposit.
No home-country issuance step, arranged on the US side by the broker who is already handling your entry.
Must exist before shipping, and must be stamped correctly in both directions.
Export deadline is real. Missing it converts a temporary entry into a liability.
What goes wrong, and when
Almost every failure here is a timing failure rather than a document failure.
- The carnet was not opened before the goods shipped, so it cannot be used, and the entry has to be restructured under time pressure.
- The equipment list on the document does not match what is actually in the crate, including tooling, spares, and samples nobody thought to declare.
- Consumables and giveaways travel with the machine. Things you intend to hand out are not temporary imports, because they are not leaving. They need their own treatment.
- The carnet is not stamped on exit, so on paper the machine never left the country.
- The export deadline on a TIB passes because the machine went into storage rather than going home.
That last one matters if you plan to store your booth in Orlando between shows. Storing the exhibit structure is straightforward. Storing temporarily imported equipment past its export deadline is a different question, and it is one to put to your broker before you decide, not after.
The sequence to actually follow
- ✓Month fiveDecide the route with your freight forwarder and customs broker. This is the decision that has to happen before anything ships.
- ✓Month fiveBuild the equipment list, including tooling, spares, and anything else in the crate. Match it to what will physically travel.
- ✓Month fourOpen the carnet, if that is the route. Before the goods move.
- ✓Month fourSeparate anything that is being given away or consumed from anything that is coming home. They are handled differently.
- ✓Move-in weekConfirm your receiving arrangement in Orlando so the machine is not sitting on a truck while your crew waits.
- ✓Move-outGet the export properly documented and stamped. This is the step people skip because the show is over and everyone is tired.
We do not file customs paperwork, and no honest exhibit house will tell you it does. What we do is receive equipment in Orlando, hold it, and coordinate it onto the floor on your target date, so the freight side of the problem stops being a gamble on a marshalling window.
The document has to exist before the crate moves.