These identify the following issues for both parties to the transaction:
- Responsibilities of both parties and their service providers
- The division of risk between seller and buyer
- The division of costs between seller and buyer.
These issues are dealt with in international trade terms. Those most commonly used have been developed over time by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and are known as “Incoterms”, or International Commercial Terms. These are 3-letter short-hand expressions of trade terms that divide the various responsibilities between the seller and the buyer. This set of international rules for the interpretation of terms of trade was first published by the ICC in 1936, with the latest amendment being introduced from 1st January 2020.