Incoterms provide standard trade definitions commonly used in international sales contracts. Devised and published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Incoterms are accepted by governments, legal authorities and practitioners worldwide. Incoterms cut out uncertainties arising from differing interpretations of transportation terms in different countries, and go a long way towards providing the legal certainty upon which mutual confidence between business partners must be based.

Each Incoterm is referred to by a three-letter abbreviation. Some of the main ones used in our industry are defined below.

To ensure you are using Incoterms correctly, please consult the full ICC texts, available at: www.incoterms.com

All Incoterms include a “named
place”, which is extremely
important to in the agreement.
If the terms are EXW or FCA,
the named place is the loading
location. For FAS and FOB, it is
the port of loading, while for CFR
and CIF, it is the destination port.
For DAT it is the named terminal
at the port, while for DAP and
DDP the named place is the final
destination.

The latest version of Incoterms is
Incoterms 2010, which came into
effect on January 1st 2011.

To ensure you are using Incoterms
correctly, please consult the full ICC
texts, available at:
www.incoterms.com