Touring with a Carnet ATA
by Sebastian Eppner
– August 2022 –
Our first problem was that we understood much too late that Brexit made everything quite complicated for us as a band. Since the booking agency wanted to take care of the work permit, we thought all our problems were solved. In fact, this part also worked out without any major issues (which is why I have little to contribute to the application for entry and work permits in this report). However, we only realised much too late that there was a real obstacle due to the new customs border: It is no longer easy to enter England with a car (or bus) full of equipment. The solution to this problem - as we learned - is called "ATA Carnet". As a "beginner", applying for and getting this document took us about 2-3 full working days.
For inspiration, we got a list from an artist friend of ours who once needed it for a US tour. We had the impression that the more detailed and consistent the list, the fewer questions, and potential problems at the borders. Making the list is the most complicated and time-consuming part of the new Brexit touring ‘sport.’ Each piece of equipment taken must be noted on the list with its serial number (if there is no serial number, it is good to make up your own and stick it on the piece of equipment), its current value (i.e., the value at that time, eBay Classifieds helps with the estimate), approximate weight and country of origin. Where serial numbers are missing, printed photos are useful, which can be attached to the Carnet and certified. When preparing the Carnet, we wondered what should be included (e.g., also power cables and the cables for our instruments?). I don't have a definitive answer. For example, we put all the cables in a photo and then in a bag and put them on the list as one item with an estimated value and weight.
When you have the list for the whole band, you must print it on the official document (the actual ATA CARNET paper document, a few green sheets). You can get this document for a few euros at your local Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer, IHK) – in Berlin, at the IHK Berlin at Fasanenstraße. If you have enough time, you can have it sent to you. But we were in a VERY big hurry and went there ourselves (you can get it during their office hours).
The IHK's online filling-in help is extremely error-prone and regularly shatters the layout of the document (this is a well-known, but irritatingly unsolved problem). Every misprint means that you must buy another official document, which means not only money but also time wasted! Therefore, experienced border crossers print the document with their own template. As soon as we had the official document, we "copied" it in Excel and then tried it out with many test printouts until the list seemed to fit well on it. Only then did we put the sacred green sheets in the printer and printed on them. I was in a hurry at the time and aged about three years. So, allow plenty of time.
Update (August 2023): The problem has now been solved by the IHK Berlin. In future, the application can be submitted online, i.e. you no longer need to print your own forms.
Information by the IHK
The printed document must be returned to the IHK (go to the counter in person or send it in by mail). It will now be examined and stamped. In our case, it cost 120 euros for a total value of about 7,000 euros. From a total value of 15,000 euros (at least in 2021 according to my recollection, you should confirm this again by phone), the Carnet becomes much more expensive and complicated (you then need a guarantee). If you are in a hurry, you can get the stamps on the same day, which only costs a small surcharge (I think it would be around 20 euros). If you have enough time in advance, you can also do it by post.
You don't need an appointment for this, so I was there quite early to avoid queuing. You get another stamp from the Berlin customs office to certify that the list is in order and corresponds to the equipment you have with you (in our case, they didn't even look at the equipment).
Now you must show the Carnet and have it stamped a total of 4 times during the tour at the borders (when leaving the EU, when entering the UK, when leaving the UK and when entering the EU). Getting ALL FOUR stamps is important, as the Carnet must be returned to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce at the end of its validity. They check that all the stamps are there.
This is especially a problem when leaving the country, because normally (if you're not a truck driver) customs don't play a role when you leave the country, and there are special places that we weren't familiar with. Maybe these experiences (port of Calais and port of Dover) will help:
Port of Calais, EU exit: Behind the immigration UK control and before driving onto the ferry, there is a small roundabout. Next to it, there is a kind of corrugated iron hut. To find it, look for the easily overlooked sign "ATA" or "ATA CARNET" at the roundabout. In this hut, we encountered two Louis de Funès-lookalike gendarmes, who were very interested in German Krautrock, liked to stamp everything, and joked about German customs officials. Entering the EU: You can follow the yellow lines on the asphalt to customs, where there is a kind of mobile home with offices where strict customs officials look at the Carnet again. It takes around 30 minutes.
Port of Dover, UK entry: When you get off the ferry, look for a customs officer and wave your ATA Carnet. They will know where to send you (not on the motorway, but in the direction of Dover town centre, then up to the BP petrol station and then left over the bridge to "MOTIS", which is the actual customs office). Don't be surprised if you can't reach the button that opens the barrier to the car park (it's built so high that only truckers can reach it from their windows). Just get out and climb up the pillar. We talked to customs; These acrobatics are officially expected from smaller bands. After parking, go to the Customs office with all your papers, they will help you there. It takes a good 30 to 60 minutes depending on how busy it is. Leaving the UK was the same as entering, same place, same procedure.
Generally, only random checks are made, and even that is apparently quite rare. I suspect that a detailed and consistent Carnet makes the process easier. I know from acquaintances that when spot checks are done, the more valuable items on the list tend to be checked more.
Note on using the Carnet several times: The document is a kind of master document that is valid for a full year. You can go to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce within that year and just get some new annex sheets (very cheap, only a few euros) and start on a new tour. However, you cannot add any new items to the list during the year! But you can reduce it for a trip. It is therefore recommended to write a bit more on the list than you will take with you on the first trip, and then tick off what you will NOT take with you when you set off. Example: If you sometimes travel with and sometimes without a drummer, you should put the items belonging to the drum set on the list one after the other (e.g., items 40 to 47). Then, when you set off without a drum set, you can simply enter that items 40 to 47 are not part of this journey. The principle has its limit in that the price of the Carnet depends on the total value of the list.
The same applies to the countries to which you want to travel. It does not hurt to write more countries on the Carnet when issuing it, because the Carnet can then also be used in these other countries in that year (as far as I remember, at no extra charge).
Another hint: The document is always written in a name, in our case the name of the band leader. This person must then always be present when stamping. If you want to simplify this, e.g., because there is a tour manager, you can enter representatives when you apply, who can also present themselves to customs on their own.
Shipping artworks post-Brexit
by J. Young
- March 2023 -
Disclaimer: None of the following should be taken as official advice. You do this at your own risk!
Remember those halcyon days when it was possible to ship artworks, artist books, CD and vinyl to and from mainland Europe and the UK without additional paperwork, customs forms and tariffs, with work actually arriving safely at its destination rather than getting sent back?
As an artist living between the UK and mainland Europe, my partner and I are often in the position where one, or both of us are exhibiting in the EU and need to transport artwork to an exhibition venue. (It is usually the responsibility of the gallery to return work after an exhibition, so I won’t go into that here.) We also run a small pop-up gallery and curatorial project in the UK and regularly invite artists from the EU to exhibit with us as part of a programme of international collaborative exhibitions across the fields of ceramics and sound art.
Before Brexit we ran a number of projects with countries in Asia (China, Hong Kong and Korea) which involved receiving large numbers of ceramic artworks in Britain, whilst navigating customs systems on the other side of the world. Now that Britain has left the EU, we are in a similar position receiving artworks from mainland Europe as we were with the rest of the world, and so what might have been a steep learning curve for us has been made somewhat easier by our previous experience. However, what I am about to tell you is not what is written in any official guidance and involves a certain amount of risk on the part of both the sending and the receiving parties.
In order to avoid paying unnecessary Customs charges and VAT duties when sending items for exhibition in the UK, here is what we have found. Regardless of the value of the items, we always ask the artist sending the work to put a small amount as the declared value, no matter what the size and weight of the packaging (we recommend £50), and write or select “temporary admission” on the customs form to signify that the works will be returned to their original owner after exhibition. In the ten or more years that we have been doing this with artists from across the globe, involving hundreds of artworks, we have only ever had a couple of small issues and both of them were due to artists who didn’t follow our advice. Even then, we have only had to pay import duties twice, and on all other occasions got the work released from customs without payment.
Obviously, some artists are uneasy about not putting the correct value on their work, as this could invalidate any potential insurance claims, but again, in practice, we have had very little trouble in this respect. In order to ensure that ceramic artworks survive the mishandling of postage and haulage operators over long distances it is of course vital that the work is properly packaged and where this has been done correctly, work always arrives in one piece. It is also very difficult to insure ceramics and other fragile artworks such as glass in the regular postal system, only by paying for specialist art handlers can you get coverage for the full value of the work and you will be charged appropriately for it. As individual artist-curators, we and the artists who exhibit with us cannot afford this sort of luxury and therefore have had to be creative in how we address the situation.
The other scenario I mentioned at the beginning, that of transporting works for exhibition to mainland Europe from the UK can often be solved by taking the work with you on the plane or in a car (we haven’t tried this by train). Again, this is something we have successfully accomplished many times, both before and after Brexit, to Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Spain, all without problem, beyond the occasional stress of worrying about the safety and integrity of items whilst in transit. For airplane travel, packing again is the key, first of all deciding whether the work should go in hand luggage or hold baggage depending on weight and materials and then being prepared to unpack artwork / sound equipment / electronics at security, if taking it on board. Here regular travel insurance can help with any possible damages, though we have thankfully never had to make a claim. So remember to check your own travel insurance for what is covered and for how much before you travel.
If you are considering transporting artworks by car (perhaps in order to install it yourself and to be present at the exhibition opening), there is always a small chance of being stopped and searched by Border guards on the Channel crossing, who will then want to know what is being ‘imported’ into the EU and for what purpose, so I urge the reader to look at the border country’s policies in this respect before deciding to go ahead. For EU residents and citizens there is less likely to be a problem as any items belonging to yourself can simply be claimed as personal property and therefore not subject to any duties or taxes.
British bureaucracy remains severely overstretched post-Brexit and so getting stopped on the way into Britain by Customs is a low risk proposition. We were recently helped by a friend who organised the transportation of a cargo of artwork from Northern Spain to the UK after a recent exhibition, and which was safely delivered by a British citizen living in Spain who regularly makes the trip to visit relatives at home. We simply waited at the port and met our ‘courier’ straight off the boat. There are a number of Facebook and other social media communities that feature postings of this sort, where people who already making the journey offer space in their vehicle in exchange for a contribution towards fuel costs. Again, you do this at your own risk.
None of the above implies that you need to break the law, by the way, and certainly don’t do anything that you don’t feel comfortable with. We have found that it is very difficult to get official advice from His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs regarding shipping artworks between the EU and UK post-Brexit, with the transportation of non-commercial artworks simply not fitting into any of the pre-existing categories under which such rules and tariffs are applied. Also, none of the official artist organisations in the UK offer advice on this topic either and so we have had to navigate all of this ‘blind’, trusting in our own judgement.
I remain optimistic that trade barriers will be removed eventually, as has been shown by the negotiation of the ‘Windsor Framework’ in Northern Ireland (NI) which has significantly reduced the barriers for trade between mainland UK and NI, but it may take a few more years for Britain to come to its senses politically and to negotiate a similar arrangement for the whole of the country. In the meantime, don’t let Brexit-induced trade barriers deter you from selling your work in Britain and in Europe, just get creative with shipping.
Editors note: Please also note our information on transport beyond EU borders and our checklist for the ATA Carnet
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