Exhibition Goods: Coming Home or Staying Put? Know Your Options Before It's Too Late

Every company bringing goods to an exhibition needs to understand their customs status from the start

Every company that brings goods to an exhibition — especially high-value industrial goods like machinery, heavy equipment, or technical equipment — is actually making one important decision without realizing it: what customs status will be applied to these goods?

The answer determines costs, processing speed, and risks you'll face. Here are the options you need to understand.

1. Temporary Import

This is the pathway for goods that will genuinely return overseas after the exhibition closes. You receive exemption or relief from import duties, and PDRI (VAT, PPh 22) is not collected — as long as the goods are re-exported within the prescribed timeframe. The process goes through standard customs declaration, with a guarantee (cash or bank guarantee) submitted to customs at the port of entry.

2. ATA Carnet — "Passport" for Exhibition Goods

ATA Carnet is technically part of temporary import as well, but with one major difference: the guarantee is handled once in the country of origin through a national issuing body (in Indonesia, KADIN). Once you hold this Carnet, goods can move in and out of 78 countries without needing to arrange local guarantees repeatedly or file new customs declarations in each country.

The advantages are clear: faster processing, administrative time savings, and ideal for companies that regularly participate in exhibitions across multiple countries. However, there's an important caveat — not all exhibition venues in Indonesia are ready to process it. This is not something you can assume; you need to check with the organizer before goods depart.

What If You're Unsure, or Plans Change?

This is the part most often overlooked in exhibition preparation: many exhibitors depart without certainty about whether their goods will go home or stay. That's understandable — sometimes commercial decisions only become clear after meeting potential buyers on-site.  What you need to understand: both scenarios can be anticipated, as long as you plan from the start, not scramble during the exhibition.

• If the status is temporary import initially, but a serious buyer emerges who wants to purchase the goods — there is a mechanism to change the import status, settle the duties and taxes that were previously deferred, before the goods legally change hands.
• If there's a realistic possibility from the start that goods will be sold, it's safer to consider the regular import option from the beginning (goods imported for use, full import duty paid upfront), rather than wait for problems to arise mid-way.

The bottom line: uncertainty is not a reason to skip planning. Rather, because circumstances can change, you need a strategy for both scenarios from when the exhibition proposal is first created.

This Isn't New for Us

TCI handles customs procedures every year for various companies participating in industrial exhibitions — whether their goods are definitely going home, definitely staying, or their status only becomes clear later. We understand exactly where this process tends to get stuck — guarantees that don't meet requirements, venues not ready for Carnet processing, or sudden status changes that weren't anticipated from the start.

If your company is preparing for an exhibition and isn't sure which pathway is best for your goods, now is the right time to discuss it — before goods depart, not after problems arise at the port. Our team is open to consultation.