EXW — Ex Works
The seller's minimum obligation: goods are made available at their own premises, not loaded, not cleared for export.
- Group
- E — Departure
- Transport mode
- Any mode, including multimodal.
- Named place
- The seller's premises, or another place where the goods are put at the buyer's disposal.
- Main carriage paid by
- Buyer
- Risk passes
- Seller's premises, not loaded
- Export clearance
- Buyer
- Import clearance and duties
- Buyer
- Seller must insure
- No obligation on either party. Arrange your own cover.
- Unloading at destination
- Buyer.
Under EXW the seller's job ends when the goods are packed and available at the named place. They are not obliged to load them onto the buyer's collecting vehicle, and they are not obliged to clear them for export. Risk passes at that moment, on the ground at the seller's site.
That export clearance point is the problem. The buyer is formally responsible for clearing goods out of a country where they may have no presence, no exporter registration and no standing to file. In practice the seller usually does it anyway as an unpriced favour, which means the document trail and the legal obligation disagree — an awkward position if anything is ever questioned.
EXW is convenient for a seller quoting quickly and for a buyer with a strong forwarder in the origin country. For most other buyers, FCA at the same premises is the same commercial deal with the export clearance put where it can actually be performed.
EXW looks like the cheapest quote a buyer can get and frequently is not. It excludes loading and export clearance, both of which reappear as costs later — and unlike freight, neither was in the number you compared.
Always write the rule with its named place and the version — EXW [named place], Incoterms 2020. The rule says nothing about when ownership transfers; that is for your sales contract.