As the global supply chain industry comes to grips with the latest iteration of the International Commercial Terms (Incoterms 2020), local traders have been warned to embrace the recently released amendments to avoid running into trouble. Mark Goodger, chief executive of Global Maritime Legal Solutions (GMLS), told FTW that it was critical for domestic traders to understand what the inner workings of the international commercial trading laws were. “These are the non-negotiables of international trade.“If you do not come to grips with the latest changes made to Incotermsyou could consider yourself a risk, not only to you, but also to your organisation and whoever you are dealing w ith.”The International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) latest batch of Incoterms, which came into effect on January 1, has had the entire industry in a buzz, with billions of rand potentially on the line.However, according to Goodger, there has been some interest from the local freight industry in learning the new regulations, but not enough. “We have a few clients coming to us saying that they want double the amount of training because that is how important it is to understand what changes have been made to the international trading laws.“But the local industry is still too slow to come the party, and only worry about the changes once a problem arises, which by then could be too late. “We are paying a fortunein transport costs in our country, and nothing is being done about it. You can almost call it imported inf lation because we do not control transport properly, we do not do compliance properly, and people do not invest the time or energy to fully understand and incorporate the trading laws.”GMLS w ill host legal expert on Incoterms Bob Ronai at a series of events on Incoterms in Johannesburg, C a p e To w n , Durban and Windhoek from March 31 to April 3.
INSERT: If you do not come to grips with Incoterms, you could consider yourself a risk.– Mark Goodger
