Customs Convention on the Temporary Importation of Private Road Vehicles

Argentina 4 Jun 1954

Austria 4 Jun 1954 30 Mar 1956

Belgium 4 Jun 1954 21 Feb 1955

Cambodia 4 Jun 1954

China5

Costa Rica 20 Jul 1954 4 Sep 1963

Cuba 4 Jun 1954 20 Nov 1963

Dominican Republic 4 Jun 1954

Ecuador 4 Jun 1954 30 Aug 1962

Egypt 4 Jun 1954 4 Apr 1957

France 4 Jun 1954 24 Apr 1959

Germany c 4 Jun 1954 16 Sep 1957

Guatemala 4 Jun 1954

Haiti 4 Jun 1954 12 Feb 1958

Holy See 4 Jun 1954

Honduras 15 Jun 1954

India 4 Jun 1954 5 May 1958

Italy 4 Jun 1954 12 Feb 1958

Japan 2 Dec 1954 8 Jun 1964

Liechtenstein3

Luxembourg 6 Dec 1954 21 Nov 1956

Mexico 4 Jun 1954 13 Jun 1957

Monaco 4 Jun 1954

Netherlands 4 Jun 1954 7 Mar 1958

Panama 4 Jun 1954

Philippines 4 Jun 1954 9 Feb 1960

Portugal 4 Jun 1954 18 Sep 1958

Spain 4 Jun 1954 18 Aug 1958

Sri Lanka 4 Jun 1954 28 Nov 1955

Sweden 4 Jun 1954 11 Jun 1957

Switzerlandc 4 Jun 1954 23 May 1956

Syrian Arab Republicc 26 Mar 1959

United Kingdom 4 Jun 1954 27 Feb 1956

United States
of America 4 Jun 1954 25 Jul 1956

Uruguay 4 Jun 1954

Declarations and Reservations
(Unless otherwise indicated, the declarations and reservations were made
upon ratification, accession or succession.)

Algeria

The Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria does not consider itself bound by article 40 of the said Convention and declares that a dispute may be submitted to arbitration only with the agreement of all the parties.

bulgaria10

cuba

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba does not consider itself bound by the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 of article 40 of the Convention. At the same time it states that, if this reservation is rejected by more than two-thirds of the Parties to the Convention, it will consider that the Convention has not been ratified by the Revolutionary Government of Cuba, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of article 39.

el salvador

In connexion with article 4, El Salvador reserves its rights with respect to the temporary importation of component parts for the repair of motor vehicles in view of the fact that such component parts may be difficult to identify when taken out of the country; it therefore considers that payment of the taxes prescribed by the law should be made in such cases. The same reservation is made in connexion with other articles of the Convention which refer to component parts for repairs.

guatemala

"The Guatemalan Government reserves its right:

"(1) To consider that the provisions of the Convention shall apply solely to natural persons and not to legal persons and bodies corporate as provided in chapter I, article 1;

"(2) To consider that article 4 shall not be applicable to Guatemala;

hungary 11

Declaration:

Article 38 of the Convention is at variance with the United Nations General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 16 December 1960 on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

Reservation:

The Hungarian People's Republic does not consider itself bound by the provisions contained in paragraph 2 of article 40 of the Convention.

india

With reference to article 1 (e):

"The Government of India reserves the right to exclude `legal' persons from the categories of persons to whom concessions envisaged in this Convention are applicable."

With reference to article 2:

"Notwithstanding the provisions of article 2 of this Convention, the Government of India reserves the right to exclude from the benefits of this article persons normally resident outside India who, on the occasion of a temporary visit to India, take up paid employment or any other form of gainful occupation."

israel

"Article 4, paragraph 1

"The Government of Israel shall not be bound to admit without payment of import duties and import taxes the importation of component parts of there pair of vehicles temporarily imported; likewise, import prohibitions and restrictions in force at the time being in Israel may be applied to the importation of such component parts."

"Article 24, paragraphs 1 and 2

"In view of the fact that land frontiers with neighbouring States are closed at the present time and that, consequently, private road vehicles may not be re-exported except through an Israel port, the Government of Israel shall not be bound to accept as evidence of re-exportation of vehicles or component parts thereof, any of the documents referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 24."

mexico

Reservation made upon signature and confirmed uponratification:

"The Delegation of Mexico, in accordance with the declaration duly made when the matter was under discussion in Working Party I, reserves its rights with regard to article 4, which authorizes the temporary importation of component parts for the repair of motor vehicles. The Delegation cannot agree to this article because the procedure in question is contrary to the legislation of its country, and because such spare parts do not usually have the specifications which would permit of their identification on exit. In the Delegation's opinion, this procedure would be prejudicial to the country's fiscal interests, because in this way it would be possible to import new spare parts without payment of duty by re-exporting old parts belonging to a vehicle not the tourist's own. It has therefore been considered more appropriate that in such cases the proper duty should be paid.

"The same reservation is made with regard to other articles of this Convention which refer to component parts for making repairs."

poland12,c

romaniac

The Romanian People's Republic does not consider itself bound by the provisions of article 40, paragraphs 2 and 3, of the Convention. The position of the Romanian People's Republic is that a dispute concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention may be submitted to arbitration only with the agreement of all the parties in dispute and that only persons nominated by unanimous agreement of the parties in dispute may act as arbitrators.

Russian Federationc

The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, considering that disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Customs Convention on the Temporary Importation of Private Road Vehicles can be decided by arbitration, declares that a dispute may be submitted to arbitration only with the agreement of all the parties in dispute and that only persons nominated by unanimous agreement of the parties in dispute may act as arbitrators.

Senegal

1. Notwithstanding the provisions of article 2 of the said Convention, the Government of the Republic of Senegal reserves to itself the right to exclude from the benefits of the said article persons normally resident outside Senegal who, on the occasion of a temporary visit to Senegal take up paid employment or any form of gainful occupation;

2. The Government of the Republic of Senegal reserves the right:

a) To consider that the provisions of the Convention shall apply solely to natural persons and not to legal persons and bodies corporate as provided in chapter 1, article 1;

b) To consider that article 4 shall not be applicable to its territory;

sri lanka

"Notwithstanding the provisions of article 2 of this Convention, the Government of Ceylon reserves to itself the right to exclude from the benefits of this article persons normally resident outside Ceylon who, on the occasion of a temporary visit to Ceylon, take up paid employment or any other form of gainful occupation."

tunisia

A dispute may be submitted to arbitration only with the agreement of all the parties in dispute.

Territorial Application

NOTES:

c See note at the beginning of chapter XI.A-6.

However, the Secretary-General received in this regard, on 22 January 1985, from the Government of Austria the following declaration:

"Austria does not object to the substance of the amendment proposed by Switzerland which has been approved by the Austrian Federal Government on December 12, 1984. But as the Austrian constitutional procedures in the present case also require the ratification by the Federal President after approval by parliament, Austria is not yet in a position to apply the new regulations. Austria does, however, not wish to prevent the entry into force of the present amendment for the other contracting states.

Subsequently, on 7 June 1985, the Secretary-General was informed by the Government of Austria that "the said amendment had been approved by the Austrian Parliament and that it would therefore now be applied by Austria."

On 30 January 1992, the Secretary-General circulated, the text of the amendments to the English, French and Spanish authentic texts proposed by the Government of Italy. In this connexion, it is to be noted that the said amendments, as circulated by depositary notification C.N.315.1991.TREATIES-1 dated 30 January 1992, indeed entered into force on 30 October 1992, with the exception, however, of the proposed amendment to article 13, consisting in the addition of a fourth paragraph: an objection was formulated by Japan to the said proposed amendment on 30 July 1992, i.e., within the period of six months from the date of the relevant depositary notification as follows:

". . . The Government of Japan considers that the proposed provisions of article 13, paragraph 4, setting forth the exemption from taxation in case of loss or theft of an object in the case of a seizure, do not appear precise enough to ensure the prevention of its abuse. For this reason, the Government of Japan considers thatthe proposed amendments should not be adopted and therefore expresses its objection to them in accordance with article 42 (2) of the Convention."

Consequently, in accordance with article 42 (3), all amendments proposed by Italy entered into force for all Contracting Parties three months after the expiration of the period of six months following the date of circulation of the proposed amendment by the Secretary-General, i.e. on 30 October 1992, with the exception of the proposed fourth paragraph to article 13.

c Including Liechtenstein. On 16 June 1975, the Government of Switzerland declared that the provisions of the Convention apply to the Principality of Liechtenstein so long as it is linked to Switzerland by a customs union treaty.

c The Republic of Viet-Nam had acceded to the Convention on 31 January 1956. See also note in chapter I.2 and note 1 in chapter III.6.

c On 6 and 10 June 1997, respectively, the Governments of China and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland notified the Secretary-General of the following:

cc See note in chapter I.2.

cc See note in chapter XI.A-6.

c Notification by the United Arab Republic. See note in chapter I.1.

c The Governments of Italy and Switzerland notified the Secretary-General that they object to these reservations. The Government of the United States of America has notified the Secretary-General that it has no objection to [these] reservation[s], but "considers that it may, and hereby states that it will, apply the aforesaid reservation[s] reciprocally with respect to Bulgaria [on the other hand and] to the Soviet Union [on the other]".

c The Government of Switzerland has notified the Secretary-General that it objects to this reservation.

14 The Government of Switzerland has notified the Secretary-General that it objects to this reservation. The Government of the United States of America has notified the Secretary-General that it has no objection to this reservation, but "considers that it may and hereby states that it will apply this reservation reciprocally with respect to Romania".

15 With regard to the application to the Territory of the Belgian Congo and to the Trust Territory of Ruanda-Urundi of the Customs Convention on the Temporary Importation of Private Road Vehicles, concluded at New York on 4 June 1954, the Belgian Government considers that in present circumstances the system of free international circulation of motor vehicles should not be extended to legal persons. Temporary admittance without payment should not be granted in respect of component parts imported for the repair of a vehicle covered by free circulation papers.

The latter restriction does not, of course, apply to component parts accompanying vehicles when they are listed in the counterfoil of the international circulation document.

By a communication received on 10 February 1965, the Government of Rwanda in relation to the succession, informed the Secretary-General that it did not intend to maintain any of the above-mentioned reservations.

cc See note in chapter I.1.

c The reservation with respect to Malta reads as follows:

"Article 4 of the Convention shall not apply to Malta." On 3 January 1966, the Government of Malta notified the Secretary-General of its succession to the Convention. In a communication received on 28 February 1966, the Government of Malta notified the Secretary-General that it did not intend to maintain the said reservation, which had been made on its behalf by the Government of the United Kingdom at the time of the notification of the extension of the Convention to Malta.