THE ROLE OF THE INCOTERMS IN REGULATING THE CONDITIONS OF FOREIGN TRADE CONTRACTS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the role and significance of the International Commercial Terms (Incoterms) as basic terms of supply in regulating the terms of foreign trade contracts. It is emphasized that in modern conditions of international trade, the Incoterms Rules make it possible to unify and standardize the terms of supply, simplify the process of agreeing the terms of a foreign trade contract, avoid burdening the content and structure of the contract, and prevent double interpretation of some points. Aspects related to the scope of Incoterms regulation are defined, the structure and content of the Incoterms are described in detail in accordance with their current version. The classification of the basic terms of supply was carried out according to the principle of gradually increasing the scope of responsibility from the exporter to the importer. The distribution of responsibility between the exporter and the importer for the shipment of goods, export customs clearance, loading on the transport, delivery to the port, loading on the ship, transportation / freight, unloading from the ship, insurance of the goods, delivery to the destination, unloading at the destination, import customs clearance. The advantages and disadvantages of the Incoterms for exporters and importers have been analyzed, the expediency of using certain rules under certain conditions has been determined. Particular attention was paid to determining the moment of transfer of risks and responsibility for damage or loss of cargo from the exporter to the importer in accordance with each basic delivery condition, and the possibilities of using Incoterms for different types of transportation were analyzed. The conditions that must be observed by international trade participants when using Incoterms in foreign trade agreements are summarized, the possibility of applying any version of Incoterms is emphasized. It is also stated that the current edition of the Rules was developed with the aim of maximally taking into account modern trends in the development of international trade, clarifying certain aspects of the interaction of trading partners and helping to avoid ambiguous interpretation of the terms of supply. The authors also emphasized that the use of the Incoterms significantly simplifies the process of interaction between the parties to a foreign trade agreement and optimizes the content of the international contract.