Shipping Terms

What are INCOTERMS?
Incoterms - Definitions
Incoterms - a Graphical Representation

What are INCOTERMS?

Terms of Sale / INCOTERMS

Terms of Sale e.g: "Ex-Works"; FOB; CIF, are what determine the buyer’s and seller’s responsibilities for risks and costs on the trade of goods.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) publishes rules for interpreting these terms, which is called "INCOTERMS" – INternational COmmercial TERMS. Whilst trading nations do not enforce the "INCOTERMS" definitions, they are widely accepted and in common use internationally. The ICC publish a variety of explanatory books, and these can be obtained at there on-line bookstore: http://www.iccbooks.com/iccpub/categorie.asp

Incoterms in the USA

Traders dealing with the USA may encounter a preference there to use the American Foreign Trade Definitions (AFT) rather then Incoterms. On publication of Incoterms 1980 the American organisations involved agreed to phase out the AFTD in favour of Incoterms for international transactions at least. That proved to be a slower process than expected, but good progress is now being made and UK traders should not experience any great difficulty in convincing those on the other side to use an appropriate Incoterm as the most effective and practical solution today.

INCOTERMS 1990 / 2000

A new edition of Incoterms will replace the 1990 on 1^st January 2000. The following definitions are taken from the 1990 edition. There are only two substantive changes:

• The customs clearance and payment of duty obligations onder FAS and DEQ
• The loading and unloading obligations under FCA. Please refer to the Incoterms 2000 Manual for details.

INCOTERMS 1990 details 13 different terms in total, split into 4 categories: E, F, C, & D. Each "Term" has a three letter code beginning with one of these 4 letters.

Percy Pallet™ is a Trademark of the PSL Group. All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.