What are Incoterms?

Incoterms (International Commercial Terms) were published by the International Chamber of Commerce in 1936, and were aimed at creating worldwide trade standards that would help reduce the complexity of international operations.

Today, there are 11 3-letter terms, which are abbreviations of voluntary and modifiable agreements that express the practice between companies in sales agreements in terms of the purchaser’s and seller’s responsibilities. Specifically, Incoterms define the obligations of each party, the transfer of risk and the distribution of the operation’s cost.

Since their creation, Incoterms have been reviewed in 1953, 1967, 1976 and 1980, and since then every 10 years, i.e. in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020