EXW, Ex Works, is the Incoterm placing minimum obligation on the seller: goods are made available at the seller’s premises, and the buyer bears every cost and risk from there, including loading, export clearance, main carriage, import clearance, and delivery.
EXW suits quotes stripped to the goods themselves, but it travels badly across borders: the buyer must clear export in the seller’s country, which foreign buyers often cannot do efficiently, and sellers in practice end up loading trucks they technically bear no risk for. The ICC suggests FCA for international sales needing seller-side export help.
Under EXW the buyer contracts the whole chain: pick-up, export formalities, ocean leg, and destination logistics, usually through a forwarder.
An EXW buyer owns the entire tracked journey, so visibility is their problem from the seller’s dock onward: booking confirmation, gate-in, load, and every event after belong to the buyer’s risk column. TrackingMCP gives the buyer’s team the full arc in tracking, which is exactly the span EXW makes them responsible for.
Incoterms allocate cost and risk between buyer and seller, but the sales contract controls. Confirm the rule, the named place, and the Incoterms edition in writing, and take advice for anything contentious.
EXW, Ex Works, is the Incoterm placing minimum obligation on the seller: goods are made available at the seller’s premises, and the buyer bears every cost and risk from there, including loading, export clearance, main carriage, import clearance, and delivery.
The buyer, formally. Since foreign buyers often lack standing to file export declarations in the seller’s country, parties frequently switch to FCA, where the seller clears export.
When the goods are placed at the buyer’s disposal at the named place, before loading. If the seller loads anyway, it does so at the buyer’s risk unless the contract says otherwise.
Track the full chain as buyer →
Origin port context →
More in Incoterms, rates & risk: Incoterms · FCA (Free Carrier) · FOB (Free On Board) · CFR (Cost and Freight) · CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) · DAP (Delivered at Place) · DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) · Spot rate vs contract rate · Force majeure · General average · Letter of indemnity (LOI) · Browse all 106 terms →