Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Carnet de Passage for North Americans

The CAA has recently announced that they will no longer issue Carnets as of March 31 2015 - so Canadians and Americans are now out of luck - sort of.

The official announcement is at
Carnet de Passages en Douane

reproduced here:

Quote:

Please note that effective no later than March 31, 2015 CAA will cease its Carnet de passage en Douane issuing operations.

CAA is currently seeking another agency willing to accept applications from North American clients.

The CAA operation will close on March 31, 2015. New clients will be obliged to wait for a European based centralized issuing department expected in the third quarter of 2015.

For clients already travelling, for you nothing will change. Your file will be kept open until your current expired carnet is received back at CAA National and discharged.

Existing clients must understand that CAA will not be able to issue another carnet once your current one expires.

Should you have any questions or concerns please direct them to Suzanne Danis at CAA National.

The good news is that the rule has always been that if your home country does not have an issuing authority, then you can always go elsewhere - and that's a good thing.

ADAC in Germany is very good and has sensible rates, and RAC in the UK, RAC in Western Australia etc should all be happy to deal with you.
More at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/links/carnet/

AND the interesting news is that there will be a central authority in Europe - that could be VERY good, or not...

We'll have to wait and see, but I'm optimistic here.
For more details, see horizonsunlimited.com/carnet

In essence, no need to panic!

Notes:
ATA Carnet - since someone always finds this and asks - it's NO use to us, it's a product carnet, i.e. if you wanted to go to a trade show in another country, you use an ATA carnet so you can take your goods in and out without having to pay duty. It is NOT usable for travelling through on your own bike. (It's been done, illegally, with a lot of risk if you get caught - smuggling.)

I've written to Suzanne Danis, the CAA Carnet person extraordinaire for the last 30-odd years, to see what's her thinking on what's happening.

For a reasonably up-to-date as-best-we-know list of countries where the Carnet is REQUIRED, see our Carnet Countries page: Carnet de Passages en Douanes - List of countries where it is Required | Horizons Unlimited