Dear Friends,

I hope you all are doing well! I will attend to the Blade show in Atlanta first time this year, and I'm very happy (and honor) for the oportunity to meet you in person out there.
I'm writing to you, because as an exhibitor I'm afraid of all of "burocracy" related with import/export knives to US. The law restrictions are quite different in Europe, Poland and United States. I would like to make the journey to Atlanta smooth and stressless. However, I dont know if my knowledge about all the "paper permissions/certificated/clarance release" is complete and correct. Because a lot of you pass the border to get into Atlanta in June, I want to direct the questions to you and ask for help.

Passing a border with set of knives (not one or two, but many) is considered as a smugling. Even If there is no perspective to sell them, the proper registeratoin in the customs office have to be done.
There is a document that called Carnet ATA ( https://www.atacarnet.com/what-carnet) which allows to clear customs and legaly travel with some goods. My doubts are related with simple: Is it all I need? Should I apply for additional document from US goverment/ US customs office? Additionally, if I sell the knife on the blade show, who pay the import tax: me or the customer? What are the fees/charges related to the import knife to US and who is charged (buyer or seler?) Is there a sell tax difference between the states in case of imported items? How the international sell procedure looks like in the letter od law? who is charged with what taxes/fees, who report it to the customs office?

Besides that, there is another problem: How to phisicaly protect the knives in the luggage, if the luggage needs to stay open after check in (Each Airlines require to leave the luggage open to make verification by the customs oficer possible). There is a topic "Getting Knives Safely To Blade Show", but the Ed Caffrey suggestion (thank you for share your expierience and suggestion Sir!) can't be enforce in case of international journey (Guns are illegal in Poland).
There have to be different way to reduce the risk of steal/lost luggage.

I would be very grateful if those who traveled internationaly with a set of knives share their expierience and knowledge about "what to avoid" or/and "what to be prepared for".

I wish you all the best
David