Glossary
Export terms, in plain English
Export paperwork is full of words that were written for banks and government departments rather than for the people who ship the goods. Each one here is explained in a sentence, without using another piece of jargon to do it.
- annex
- A list attached to an official notice naming the exact product codes it applies to — or, as with the US forced-labour tariff, the codes left out of it. Check which way round it runs before you use it.
- customs brokeralso called a CHA, Customs House Agent
- The agent who files your export declaration with customs on your behalf and handles clearance at the port.
- DGFTDirectorate General of Foreign Trade
- The Indian government body that sets foreign trade policy, issues exporter codes, and runs most export benefit schemes.
- discrepancy
- Any way your documents fail to match what was asked for, or fail to match each other. Under a letter of credit it releases the bank from its duty to pay unless your buyer agrees to overlook it.
- eBRCelectronic Bank Realisation Certificate
- Proof that you were paid for an export. Your bank sends the remittance details to DGFT, and you then generate and certify the eBRC yourself on the DGFT portal. Several government benefits ask for it.
- EDPMSExport Data Processing and Monitoring System
- The Reserve Bank of India's system that tracks whether the money for each export shipment came back into the country. Your shipment stays listed as open in it until your bank matches a payment to it.
- HS codeHarmonised System code
- The international number that identifies what your product is. Customs everywhere uses it to decide duty, so the same goods carry the same code in every country — at least for the first six digits.
- HTS subheadingHarmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
- The US version of the product code, which goes into more detail than the international six digits. US duty is decided at this finer level, so your Indian code and the US code can agree at the start and differ where it matters.
- ICEGATE
- The Indian customs online system where export declarations are filed and processed.
- importer of record
- The party legally responsible for bringing goods into a country and paying the duty on them. On most Indian exports that is your overseas buyer, not you.
- incoterm
- The three-letter code on your quote that settles who pays for each part of the journey and where your risk ends. FOB, CIF and DDP are the common ones.
- landed cost
- What the goods actually cost your buyer by the time they reach them — the price, plus freight, insurance, duty and local charges.
- letter of credit
- An undertaking from your buyer's bank to pay you, provided the documents you present say what the credit asks for and do not contradict each other or the credit. The bank checks paperwork, not goods.
- realisation
- Receiving the export payment into your account in India. Regulations set a time limit for it, counted from when the goods left.
- rules of origin
- The test that decides whether goods count as genuinely coming from a country, for the purpose of claiming lower duty under a trade agreement. Shipping from India is not the same as originating in India.
- Section 301
- A part of US trade law that lets the US government put extra duty on goods from a country it says is trading unfairly. It is the legal basis for the tariff, not a description of your product.
- shipping bill
- The official declaration of your export, filed with Indian customs — usually by your customs broker. It is the document the government treats as the record of what left the country.
- USTROffice of the United States Trade Representative
- The US government office that decides and announces trade measures like extra tariffs. Their published notice is the official position.
If a word you have met in your own paperwork is missing, tell us and we will add it.