Incoterms® in Action

Everyone trusts three letters to settle the deal. FOB. DAP. DDP. The buyer and seller shake on a term, drop it into the purchase order, and assume the hard questions are answered. They are not. The three letters tell you almost nothing about who actually files the export declaration, who eats the demurrage when the box sits at the port, or whose money is on the water when the vessel goes down. Incoterms® in Action is the field manual that picks up where the definitions stop. For each of the eleven rules, it works the execution: the export and import formalities, the exact point risk and cost change hands, the SAP/ERP fields the term has to populate, the contract clause that should actually appear in your agreement, and the itemized customs-value math. It reasons from real events — the Ever Given and general average, Hanjin's collapse, the Tianjin blast, the Aliakmon, Trek Leather — so the rules stick. It also closes the US-specific gaps most guides skip: Section 301 and 232 tariffs, antidumping and countervailing duties, Section 321 de minimis and its 2025–2027 collapse, USMCA origin, COGSA and the $500 package limit, and cases like Neuromed and BP Oil. Who this is for: procurement, sales, logistics, and trade-compliance professionals — and the students, instructors, and certification candidates who need more than a chart. A full teaching apparatus (learning objectives, key terms, review questions, answer key, and a 12-week syllabus) is built in, closing with an end-to-end capstone shipment and annotated sample documents. Written by James R. Ferry II, CCS, CES, CIT — a US customs and trade-compliance consultant with 25 years in the trade.