Incoterms
Eleven three-letter rules dividing cost, risk and customs duties between seller and buyer.
Published by the International Chamber of Commerce and revised roughly every decade, currently Incoterms 2020. Each rule answers three questions: who pays for what, where risk passes, and who handles export and import clearance.
They do not say who owns the goods, and they are not a price. Under CIF the seller pays the freight, but risk passes at origin. Many people do not expect that.
An Incoterm without a named place is incomplete. Write “FOB Yantian” or “DAP Rotterdam”, never the bare code.
All eleven rules, compared in one chart →
Also called: Incoterms 2020, delivery terms, trade terms.
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