Moving Forward

The recent tragic events in New York and Washington, D.C. are a strike not only against Americans but against the entire world.

Those of us involved in international trade must continue to embrace the diversity of the world while striving to build a global community. We must demonstrate by our actions—by our willingness to continue with our work and our lives—that we are stronger than those who would try to destroy us.

All of us at InterMart join together in expressing our heartfelt condolences and sympathy to those who have experienced tremendous loss in the tragedies of September 11, 2001.

Shipping Solutions^® 2000 upgrade offers expanded reporting features

InterMart, Inc. has released a new version of its popular Shipping Solutions 2000 export documentation software that makes it easy for users to generate a variety of shipping reports.

Shipping Solutions 2000 version 5.15 allows users to generate shipping reports organized by product, country, customer or freight forwarder for any date range.

In addition to the expanded Reports Menu, version 5.15 includes:

• An updated Automated Export System (AES) module to meet new requirements published by AESDirect.

• The new IATA Dangerous Goods form.

• A new Import Utility that allows users to import products and customers from an existing database file into Shipping Solutions 2000's Product and Consignee databases.

• Numerous other small changes designed to satisfy requests from current users.

Subscribers to the Annual Maintenance Program will automatically receive this update free of charge. In addition, everyone who has purchased the software during the past three months is eligible to receive the upgrade for free.

All other Shipping Solutions 2000 customers can upgrade to version 5.15 for $200. Shipping Solutions 2000 - Network Version users can upgrade for $500.

Shipping Solutions Classic users can upgrade to the new Shipping Solutions 2000 for $500 for the single-user version; $2,000 for the network version.

The network version of Shipping Solutions 2000 includes a license to install the program on up to four workstations. Additional user licenses are available for $250 each.

New customers can purchase Shipping Solutions 2000 version 5.15 for $995 for the single-user version or $2,495 for the network version.

SPECIAL OFFER

To celebrate the release of version 5.15, InterMart is offering a free one-year subscription to the Annual Maintenance Program for anyone who purchases a full or upgrade version of Shipping Solutions 2000 before October 31, 2001. That's a savings of up to $500!

The Annual Maintenance Program offers:

• Automatic, free upgrades for Shipping Solutions 2000 whenever they are released.

• Toll-free technical support.

• Discounts on other InterMart products including our Shipping Solutions 2000/Export Documentation training class.

CALL TO ORDER

To order the newest version of Shipping Solutions 2000, call InterMart toll-free: 1-888-890-SHIP or
1-651-905-1727.

Passage of Risk and Passage of Title

by Donald E. Ewert

I rarely delve into international law because I am not a lawyer, I do not provide legal advice, and nobody should pay any attention to what I say without consulting an attorney. Having said that, I get attacked periodically about the blanket statements I make regarding passage of risk of loss and the passage of title. My message is simple: you can easily pass risk of loss or title “in your wildest dreams” but it is hard to control in the practical world. 

I have a simple remedy. Don’t let goods leave your dock without warehouse to warehouse insurance. This means that the goods are insured against risk of loss regardless of where they are in the transportation chain. When the seller or shipper passes the insurance certificate payable to the “Assured,” and the seller who obtained the insurance endorses the certificate, the coverage passes to the buyer.

OK, So There Are Laws And Conventions

There is a wide range of laws that are encountered when doing business internationally. While I am not going to deliver an in depth review, I am offering enough information for you to have a long conversation with the attorney that helps you draft sales and distribution contracts. Read the following carefully, because these laws and conventions have some inherent conflicts with each other, which should be reason enough for you to “never let goods leave your dock without risk insurance.”

United Nations Convention on the Commercial International Sale of Goods (CISG): This convention was designed to create a uniform legal platform so that companies could apply a standard contract and have a clear understanding of the responsibilities of each of the parties. The one thing that eluded the framers of this convention was the issue of passage of title. This was not addressed because the framers could not determine a way to deal with the various country laws dealing with the passage of title.

Other Country Laws:  Each country has its own set of commercial laws. Some of these laws require title and risk of loss pass upon conclusion of the agreement between the seller and buyer, others allow passage upon issuance of the bill of lading consigned to the buyer, and yet others require physical delivery to the buyer at the place agreed upon between the seller and the buyer. There are also variations in some of these laws that pick specific functions in the transaction that trigger the passage of risk and title.

Some of the Problem Areas:  Some of the areas (definitely not all) that can muddy the water are as follows.

·        Differences that exist in the seller’s offer and the buyer’s purchase order. The CISG and the Uniform Commercial Code of the U. S. (UCC) treat discrepancies differently.

·        The UCC does not recognize oral contracts over $500, but the CISG recognizes oral contracts for any amount. This provision of the CISG can, however, be avoided contractually by the parties.

·        When a trade term is used without reference to a specific set of trade term definitions and issue dates, a conflict may arise as to the responsibilities of the parties.

·        The passage of title may precede insurable interests.

·        The U.S. Legal system includes various statutes that apply to bills of lading and passage of title for export shipments.

So Now You Know Why It’s So Confusing

While you ponder the potential outcomes and their consequences of the application of undefined trade terms, the parties’ agreement, and conflicts of law principles when no choice of law is made, you should resign yourself to the inevitable application of Murphy’s law. Murphy’s law takes effect when an arbitrary decision is made by an employee of the seller, or the freight forwarder, which will materially result in changing the trade term that is a part of the agreement. This can easily be done by the seller taking on additional responsibilities other than those contained in the trade term definitions.

RESOURCES:

Institute of International Commercial Law at Pace University School of Law

(c) 2001 Donald E. Ewert.  Used by permission.

Don Ewert has more than 25 years experience in international trade and is the author of 16 "How To" books on exporting and importing. His books are used by seminar companies, trade associations, and educational institutions. With more than 100,000 copies of his books in the hands of exporters and importers, he may be the widest read author on the subject of international trade in the United States. Books by Don Ewert are available through IBT.