Incoterms or International Commercial Terms is categories of purchase and sales of a good that indicate the division of costs (composition of the merchandise price) and the point of transference of risks (local of delivery of the good to the purchaser), determining right and obligations for each one of the parts.  They had appeared of the necessity to harmonize the terms used in the international trade of merchandises, or either, the tangible goods.

The Incoterms had beginning with a study of the International Chamber of Commerce - ICC, having its first version published in 1936.  In the intention to follow the agile development of the international commerce, the Chamber of Commerce had effected some revisions, being the last one published in 2000.

The International Terms of Commerce simplify purchase contracts and international sales, when contemplating the rights and minimum obligations of the salesman and the purchaser such as the tasks added to the process of elaboration of the product. Therefore, they are also called "Clauses of Price", because each term determines the elements that compose the value of the merchandise, adds to the production costs.

After added to contracts of purchase and sales, the Incoterms starts to have legal force, with its meaning legal necessary and effectively determined.  Thus, they simplify and they speed the elaboration of the clauses of the purchase and sales contracts.

The Incoterms are divided in four groups:

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