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Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

Glossary

Incoterms: who pays what, and from where

An Incoterm sets, in three letters, how costs and risks are split between seller and buyer on an international shipment. It also names the exact point where responsibility changes hands. The term chosen affects trading margin as much as logistics.

Three letters, a clarified contract

Incoterms are standardised trade terms that allocate, between seller and buyer, transport costs, customs formalities, insurance and the moment risk transfers. Choosing the right term means deciding who organises, who pays, and from exactly which point the goods travel at the buyer's risk. It is a commercial decision as much as a logistics one.

  • Transport costs, customs, insurance and risk transfer
  • The term names a precise geographic point
  • The choice affects trading margin as much as logistics

What the Incoterm determines

The International Trade programme has candidates choose the Incoterm on complete cases: importing equipment through the port of Conakry, exporting processed goods to a neighbouring country. The Business Management programme draws the financial consequence, relating the chosen term to the landed cost for the customer.

What the Incoterm settlesWhat it changes concretely
Who arranges the main carriageChoice of forwarder and control of the schedule
Who bears the costs, and how farThe landed cost and the margin genuinely earned
Where risk changes handsWhich party insures the goods on each leg
Who completes customs formalitiesPort clearance time and the documents to produce

International trade programmes

2 catalogue programmes put “Incoterms” to work: 300 credits and 3000 taught hours in total. The official rule holds throughout — one credit stands for 25 hours of work, 10 of them taught. Every line below is recomputed from the programme page: level, duration, credits, taught volume and fees in Guinean francs appear exactly as filed in the official catalogue.

ProgrammeLevelDurationVolumeFees
International TradeBachelor's degree2 years120 credits · 1200 taught hours5 000 000 GNF per year
Business Management programme — Bac+3 levelBachelor's degree3 years180 credits · 1800 taught hours4 800 000 GNF per year
Incoterms: who pays what, and from where — Glossary | IHETC — IHETC