This stands for International Commercial Terms. They were developed by the International Chamber of Commerce to ensure that everybody dealing in international trade was using the same term with the same meaning. Their main purpose is to clarify how functions, costs and risks are split between the buyer and seller in connection with the delivery of the goods as required by the sales contract. Each term clearly specifies the responsibilities of the seller and the buyer.
The current edition of Incoterms is dated 2010; if you wish to be sure that you have the protection of Incoterms, they should be incorporated into the contract of sale.
You can either incorporate them into the terms of shipment for example: ‘FOB Immingham Incoterms 2010’ or include a reference to Incoterms 2010 somewhere else in the sales contract.
Please contact us if you are not sure of the meaning of a particular Incoterm.