Lesley Batchelor OBE: Incoterms, interestingly enough started in
1936, which is one year after the Institute of Export was
formed. So I always remember that, and Incoterms are a really
important part of the contract, they're not a contract. But what
they do is they give businesses around the world guidelines and
an understanding of what they've committed to in terms of risk
obligations and costs. So - who's paying for what, where
does the risk pass in the goods and what obligations do you have
as a buyer and as a seller?
Chris Southworth: Well, that's a good question that, I mean, you
can see that in other parts of the global economy. But you
know, if you imagine 200 countries with 200 different
legal systems, which is effectively what we've got, that
is an absolute nightmare for a business, you know, shipping
goods or trading across boundaries and borders. So the
more commonality you can have one set of rules, everyone
following the same sort of common framework, then
obviously, that makes life an awful lot easier. We understand
what we mean by costs and risks and where and who's carrying
those responsibilities it's absolutely critical it's the
underpinning of the whole of global trade. It's absolutely
essential.
Lesley Batchelor OBE: I think the best way of working with
Incoterms is to make sure that they form part of your contract,
that you make reference to them. And when you're quoting, you're
very clear on what you're quoting to. So it's, you know,
delivered duty unpaid and then unnamed destination as per
Incoterms 2020, because actually, the Incoterms are
simply a way of working. And actually, if you said as per
Incoterms 2000, it would be just as relevant as long as we all
knew what we were working with. It's a question of actually
laying out what terms under which you're going to operate as
far as the contracts are concerned. So that actually,
when you move forward, you know exactly where the costs and the
obligations and the risk passes.