And he is right: it doesn’t matter what ONE person thinks; it matters what TWO people think: both the buyer and the seller. At the end of the day what is most important is what both the buyer and seller understand and agree to. If you are not sure how the other party interprets the selling / incoterm, ask them: make sure you know.

And as we always say, consult an experienced trade attorney with experience settling trade / incoterms disputes. They will be able to advise you on the proper definition of the incoterms you use.

As for Linda’s question, you didn’t indicate what incoterm you had a question on but since you referenced John’s question I assume you are selling on DDU terms. Your obligation under DDU terms ends once the cargo is delivered to the named place of destination mentioned in the terms. No, that does not include Customs Clearance which is the responsibility of the buyer / customer. If it’s taking 7 days to clear through Customs (which I find absolutely ridiculous unless Customs is inspecting each and every shipment) that’s the buyer’s problem, not yours. Your responsibility ends once you have reached the named destination in the DDU terms. Is it your buyer’s address? Then you would be obligated to deliver to their address.

Most importantly, remember that DDU has been removed from Incoterms 2010 and the new incoterm DAP (Delivered At Place) replaces it. So while many companies are still using DDU, the proper new term they should be using is DAP, which is actually far clearer. Note that DAP, like DDU, does not include customs clearance.

We have a customer whos broker does the clearing but the destination is the customers address. Our carrier indicates customs delay – which indicates they have passed to the broker it can be up to 7 days for them to clear. When is our obligation completed in this case?