ATA Carnet general lists

One of the most important components of an ATA Carnet is the general list. 

The general list is a full list of all the equipment you are planning to temporarily export out of the UK and into another country. It must be detailed and comprehensive, as it is customs’ main reference when they are checking your goods.

Everything that you list on your ATA Carnet must return to the UK in the same state it left in. Therefore, all consumable or disposable items (such as pens, paper, glue, lightbulbs, disposable batteries, etc.) must be excluded from the general list and declared to customs separately.

The general list is comprised of seven main categories:

1. Item description:

This is where you need to list all key information about your item and clearly specify what it is. You need to provide enough detail so that customs will be able to easily identify your item when they are checking your Carnet. Terminology such as “Box of”, “Box containing”, “Assorted”, “Various”, “Accessories” and liberal use of the phrase “set of” (other than for cables) cannot be used as part of the description of goods, as they do not clarify what is actually being taken. The only instances where packaging information could be used is in the format of headings within the list (i.e. not as an actual item). 

2. Pieces:

This is where you need to list the quantity of each item. You should only list more than one piece if the items in the item description are identical.

3. Unit:

This column must be left blank.

4. Weight:

This is where you need to list the weight of the item in kilograms. You can do this one of two ways:

• List each individual item weight 
• List the total weight (the sum of all item weights) at the bottom of the list as a heading

The latter is recommended, and can be seen in the example general list below. 

5. Value:

This is where you need to list the value of each item in GBP, and this should be the true commercial value of the item in the UK. The value must also reflect the price of the total number of items in that column.  

6. Origin:

This is where you need to input the origin of the item (the country of manufacture/creation of the item) using the ISO two-letter (Alpha-2) country code system. You can find the full list of ISO country codes here.

7. Heading:

Sometimes, you may want to use your general list as a check list or a packing list, although this is not recommended. As you can see in the example list, you are able to include headings in your list by entering ‘TRUE’ in the ‘Heading’ column (or, if you are inputting your list via the online portal, by ticking the ‘Hd’ box). This is also how you need to list your total item weight. If you do not want to include a heading, make sure to leave this column blank.

An example general list looks like this:

example_general_list_webp.webp

To help our customers, we have created in-depth guides to writing ATA Carnet general lists for the following sectors:

• Equestrian sector 
• Motorsport sector 
• Film and TV sector
• Music/concert sector
• Exhibition/display stands

Please also see our guide to listing a toolkit here.