Trade basics
Incoterms explained: who pays for what, and when
A plain-English guide to the trade terms that decide cost and risk on every shipment.
Incoterms are the standardized rules that define where a seller's responsibility ends and a buyer's begins. Get them wrong and you inherit cost and risk you never priced for.
The most common terms - EXW, FOB, CIF, and DDP - sit on a spectrum from maximum buyer responsibility to maximum seller responsibility. EXW means the buyer collects from the seller's door and owns everything after. DDP means the seller delivers, duties paid, to the buyer's door.
The practical question is never 'which term is best' but 'which term prices the risk where it belongs'. A buyer new to a lane often prefers CIF or DDP to limit exposure; an experienced importer may take FOB to control freight.
At Macropact we structure Incoterms deliberately for each deal, so cost, risk, and control land where they should - and there are no surprises at the border.
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