Incoterms and HS Code Guide

Two decisions made before a shipment leaves decide whether it is profitable. Which Incoterm you agreed to, and which HS code you classified under. Both are usually settled in a hurry, and both are expensive to get wrong.

Part one: Incoterms

An Incoterm is not shipping jargon. It fixes exactly where your cost ends, where your risk ends, and who is responsible if the container is damaged, delayed or held. First time exporters routinely agree to a term that quietly transfers cost and liability to them.

• All eleven terms explained in plain language, with the point where risk transfers marked for each
• Which terms suit sea freight and which suit air and courier
• The terms that look attractive to a buyer and expose a new exporter, and how to counter them in negotiation
• How the chosen term changes your invoice value, and therefore your incentive calculation
• Insurance responsibility under each term, and the common assumption that leaves a shipment uninsured

Part two: HS codes

Your HS code determines your duty, your buyer’s duty, whether your product needs a licence, and what remission rate you receive. It is the most consequential eight digits in your export documentation.

• How the classification structure works, and how to read your way to the correct heading
• Verifying a code rather than copying one from a competitor or an invoice
• Where classification is genuinely ambiguous, and how to document your reasoning
• What to do when your buyer’s country classifies your product differently

What misclassification actually costs

A wrong code is not a paperwork error. It reaches your bank account in four ways.

• A lower remission rate. RoDTEP rates are set against the eight digit code. Classify into an adjacent heading with a lower rate and you receive less on every shipment, silently, with nothing on the paperwork to flag it.
• A code with no benefit at all. Some headings are excluded. If your product sits in one and a correct alternative existed, the entire claim disappears.
• Duty exposure at the destination. Your buyer pays more than quoted and comes back to renegotiate, or refuses the consignment.
• Licensing and clearance delays when the declared code triggers a requirement your goods were never prepared for.

Who this is for

Exporters quoting to a foreign buyer for the first time, and established exporters who have never checked whether their inherited HS code is the right one.

Format and delivery

PDF, downloadable immediately after payment.