The new Incoterms 2020 are being drafted in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as the body that publishes them since 1930. In the last decades, there has always been a revision of Incoterms Rules coinciding with the first year of each decade 1990, 2000, 2010, which is the latest version and currently in force.
Incoterms 2020 are being drafted by a Committee of Experts (Drafting Group) that for the first time include representatives from China and Australia,
although most of the members are European. This Committee meets periodically to discuss the different issues that come from the 150 members (mainly Chambers of Commerce) of the International Chamber of Commerce.
The new Incoterms are expected to appear in the last quarter of 2019, simultaneously with the centenary of the International Chamber of Commerce, and will enter into force on January 1, 2020.
Some of the new issues and changes that are being evaluated to be included in the new edition of the Incoterms 2020 are:
Removal of EXW and DDP Incoterms
It would be a very important change since EXW is an Incoterm used in many companies with little export experience, and DDP is also commonly used especially for goods (e.g., samples or spare parts) that are sent by couriers and via express shipping companies that deal with all the logistics and customs procedures until delivery at the buyer’s address. The justification to eliminate these two terms is that they are really domestic operations: in the case of EXW by the seller-exporter and in DDP by the buyer-importer. In addition, these two Incoterms contradict, in some way, the new Customs Code of the European Union since the responsibility of the exporters and importers takes place once the clearance of export and import have been carried out.