All eleven rules side by side: who pays the carriage, who carries the risk and where the problem stops being yours.
Three letters in an offer allocate thousands of euros of cost and all the responsibility for the goods while they travel. Most arguments with a foreign customer are not about price: they are about who was paying for clearance, who had to insure, and from which point the damaged container was whose problem. This page puts it in a table.
What EXW was trying to say. The seller clears the export and delivers at the agreed point; from there the buyer is in charge. The most useful rule for containers and for multimodal transport.
| Rule | Transport | Pays the main carriage | Insurance required | Delivery and transfer of risk | Import clearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | Any mode | Buyer | None | At the seller's premises | Buyer |
| FCA | Any mode | Buyer | None | At the agreed place of origin | Buyer |
| FAS | Sea transport only | Buyer | None | Alongside the ship, at the port of origin | Buyer |
| FOB | Sea transport only | Buyer | None | On board the vessel, at the port of origin | Buyer |
| CFR | Sea transport only | Seller | None | On board the vessel, at the port of origin | Buyer |
| CIF | Sea transport only | Seller | Seller (minimum cover) | On board the vessel, at the port of origin | Buyer |
| CPT | Any mode | Seller | None | On handing over to the first carrier | Buyer |
| CIP | Any mode | Seller | Seller (broad cover) | On handing over to the first carrier | Buyer |
| DAP | Any mode | Seller | None | At destination, not unloaded | Buyer |
| DPU | Any mode | Seller | None | At destination, unloaded | Buyer |
| DDP | Any mode | Seller | None | At destination, cleared for import | Seller |
A summary of the Incoterms® 2020 rules of the International Chamber of Commerce. Incoterms® is a registered trademark of the ICC; what binds a contract is the text of the official publication and the specific place the parties write next to the three letters. This page helps you choose and ask the right questions; it does not replace that text.
International Chamber of Commerce ↗Exporta.ai calculates the maximum EXW price for each market and saves every offer with its Incoterm and named place on the CRM deal.
