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. The seller does not have to load them onto the buyer's vehicle, and does not have to clear them for export. Risk passes at that moment, with the goods still on the ground at the seller's site.
Export clearance is the problem. The buyer is legally responsible for clearing goods out of a country where they may have no office, no exporter registration and no right to file. In practice the seller usually does it anyway, for free. Then the documents say one thing and the contract says another. That is an awkward position if anything is ever questioned.
EXW is convenient for a seller who wants to quote quickly, and for a buyer with a good forwarder in the origin country. For most other buyers, FCA at the same premises is the same deal, with the export clearance done by the party that can actually do it.
EXW looks like the cheapest quote a buyer can get, and often it is not. It leaves out loading and export clearance. Both come back as costs later, and neither was in the price 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.