The 20th Meeting of the Administrative Committee for the Convention on Temporary Admission (Istanbul Convention) and the 17th Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Customs Convention on the ATA Carnet for the Temporary Admission of Goods (ATA Convention) were held jointly on 15 and 16 November 2021 in a hybrid mode allowing for remote participation with the KUDO application and on-site participation at World Customs Organization (WCO) headquarters in Brussels. Due to the unprecedented situation marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of the report will be done via the CLiKC! platform and by email in the coming days. Delegates from 33 Contracting Parties to the Istanbul Convention and 34 Contracting Parties to the ATA Convention, as well as 14 observers and 5 international organizations registered, and the meeting was attended by approximately 80 delegates.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, WCO Director of Compliance and Facilitation, welcomed Contracting Parties and observers to the joint Meeting of the ATA/Istanbul Convention Administrative Committee. He thanked the International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation (ICC WCF) for playing a leading role in the implementation of the electronic ATA Pilot Project, stressing the importance of digitalization of the Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission (ATA) Carnet for simpler, safer, cheaper and more efficient ATA Carnet procedures both for Customs and private sector stakeholders. He welcomed the electronic Carnet de Passages en Douane (CPD), developed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) for greater facilitation of the temporary management of vehicles. He informed the Meeting that the Russian Federation had accepted Annex D of the Istanbul Convention in June 2021 and the Republic of Peru had acceded to the Istanbul convention with acceptance Annexes A, B.1 and B.2, becoming the 73rd Contracting Party in July 2021.

The Committee elected Mr. Dmitry Subochev (Russian Federation) as Chairperson of the Meeting, and Mr. Ofri Orenstein (Israel) as Vice-Chairperson.

The Committee took note of the work progress concerning the development of the eATA Carnet and eCPD system, which had been discussed at the Meeting of the eATA Working Group held on 31 August 2021. Even though the schedule had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee confirmed that the production period of the eATA system, which had been prepared by the ICC, would start in 2023 with more participation in Pilot project and the collection of more test results. The Committee was also informed of the first issuance of an eCPD carnet managed by the FIA, and of the recent cooperation between the FIA and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in support of the digitization of the relevant UN Conventions on temporary importation of vehicles.

The Committee shared recent progress on the eATA system, including the experiences from the Russian Federation and the European Union, and discussed an interpretation issue of the Istanbul Convention regarding the pre-arrival notification function. The Committee agreed to update the ATA and Istanbul Convention Handbooks and E-learning course on the CLiKC! platform, which would help to facilitate the application and implementation of the Conventions on temporary importation.