{"id":3658,"date":"2016-08-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/incoterms-the-terms-that-lead-international-commerce-to-a-safe-harbour\/"},"modified":"2021-11-18T11:05:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T11:05:30","slug":"incoterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/blog\/incoterms\/","title":{"rendered":"Incoterms, the terms that lead international commerce to a safe harbour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With international commercial transactions, <strong>all terms of the agreement must be clearly defined<\/strong> so that each agent involved (vendors, purchasers, transporters, etc.) can take economic and legal responsibility for their part of the agreement. It is complex to express this agreement in a document, and even more so if the transaction is carried out between different countries. \u00a0Language is not the only barrier; there is also <strong>governing legislation for each one of the parties, which may be interpreted in different ways.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To unify criteria regarding commercial terms, the <strong>International Chamber of Commerce Trade Terms<\/strong> came about, better known by its abbreviation <strong>Incoterms<\/strong>, in 1936. The party responsible for these international trade terms is the <a href=\"https:\/\/iccwbo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">International Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, (ICC), a private organisation headquartered in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>After the first list published, several updates have taken place (in 1945, 1953, 1967, 1976, 1980, 1990, 2000), until the <a href=\"https:\/\/iccwbo.org\/resources-for-business\/incoterms-rules\/incoterms-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2010<\/a> list (applicable since 1 January, 2011 and still in force today) to adapt the terms to changes in commercial use.<\/p>\n<h2>What are Incoterms?<\/h2>\n<p>These are <strong>nomenclatures that make it easier to interpret the most commonly-used commercial terms<\/strong> that are applied internationally. They describe who hires and pays the transport service, insurance and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/blog\/how-to-perform-customs-formalities\/\">customs taxes<\/a>; who is liable if the freight is harmed, lost or if there is a delay in delivery, and where the merchandise is delivered.<\/p>\n<p>They are not of mandatory compliance; rather they are <strong>standards that the purchasing party and the vendor party voluntarily accept<\/strong> regarding freight delivery conditions (they do not refer to services, because they are intangible and do not require logistics) and the accompanying transaction costs.<\/p>\n<p>Although the list from 2010 is the last one to come into force, lists from previous years may still be used, so the commercial transaction documentation that goes<strong> with each Incoterm specifies the version year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What are Incoterms like?<\/h2>\n<p>Each Incoterm is made up of three letters and contain 11 positions (different types of contracts) that may be partially modified later on by applying certain clauses.<\/p>\n<p>The list below shows them classified into categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Group\u00a0E: Exit<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>EXW<\/strong> &#8211; Ex Works<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Group F:\u00a0No payment of main transport<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>FCA<\/strong> &#8211; Free Carrier<\/li>\n<li><strong>FAS<\/strong> &#8211; Free Alongside Ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>FOB<\/strong> &#8211; Free On Board<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Group C:\u00a0Payment of main transport<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>CFR<\/strong> &#8211; Cost and Freight<\/li>\n<li><strong>CIF<\/strong> \u2013 Cost, Insurance and Freight<\/li>\n<li><strong>CPT<\/strong> &#8211; Carrier Paid To<\/li>\n<li><strong>CIP<\/strong> &#8211; Carriage and Insurance Paid To<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Group D:\u00a0Arrival<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DAT<\/strong> &#8211; Delivered At Terminal<\/li>\n<li><strong>DAP<\/strong> &#8211; Delivered At Place<\/li>\n<li><strong>DDP<\/strong> &#8211; Delivered Duty Paid<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of these Incoterms are <strong>specific for sea transport or interior navigable waterways<\/strong> (FAS, FOB, CFR, CIF), and the rest can be used regardless of the transport method selected, and also when more than one transport method is used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With international trade, all terms of the agreement must be clearly defined; Incoterms make this task easier. We will tell you how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bilogistik.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}