Incoterms, international arbitration and payment instruments: the discreet architecture that sustains trust between companies from different countries.

There are institutions that seem to live far from the general public. They rarely appear in the headlines, they do not make front pages, and they do not arouse immediate political passions. Yet their influence is immense. They stand behind contracts, banks, ships, goods, insurance, payments, arbitrations, and transactions that cross borders every day.

One of those institutions is the International Chamber of Commerce, better known by its English acronym, ICC, with its headquarters in Paris.

Perhaps its name does not have, for the ordinary citizen, the symbolic force of a major international political organisation; but for those who work in foreign trade, banking, logistics, arbitration or international contracting, the ICC is a fundamental reference. It is, in a sense, one of the great silent architects of world trade.

The International Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1919, at the end of the First World War, to serve world business by promoting trade and investment, an open market for goods and services, and the free flow of capital. The organisation’s international secretariat was established in Paris, and the ICC International Court of Arbitration was created in 1923.

Its importance does not derive from the force of a state law. The ICC is not a parliament, nor a government, nor a public organisation with legislative power in the strict sense. And yet its texts are used throughout the world. Its rules are incorporated into contracts, banking operations, international sales and arbitration proceedings. They are not imposed by the authority of a State, but by something perhaps more difficult to obtain: the trust of economic operators.

The ICC has different offices around the world, France being its parent centre. Among them are offices in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, England, Russia, Germany, Spain, Madagascar, Nigeria, Iran, Australia, China, New Zealand, Mexico and in many other developed and developing countries. In essence, it reaches almost the entire world and is gradually bringing in less developed countries whose entrepreneurs seek support in order to grow.

Incoterms: when three letters prevent a conflict

The best-known example of this work is the Incoterms rules.

Anyone who has ever seen an international sales contract will have come across those brief and mysterious acronyms: FOB, CIF, EXW, DAP, DDP. They look almost like coded keys. But behind each one there is a practical answer to very specific questions: who delivers the goods, where they are delivered, who assumes transport, who pays certain costs, and who bears the risk if something happens during the journey.

In a domestic sale, many of these questions can be resolved with relative simplicity. But in international trade everything becomes more complicated. Goods may be manufactured in Asia, sold by a European company, shipped through an African port, insured in London and end up in Latin America. Along that route, carriers, banks, insurers, customs agents, freight forwarders and the authorities of several countries may all intervene.

A single ambiguity is enough for a conflict to arise.

That is why the Incoterms rules have been so successful. They condense, into three letters, an enormous amount of practical experience. They do not solve everything, of course. They do not replace the contract, nor do they eliminate the need for sound legal advice. But they provide a common basis. They allow the parties to know, at least, where they are starting from and exactly what the formula they have chosen means.

In a sense, the Incoterms rules are a small masterpiece of commercial intelligence. They have no legislative solemnity, yet they are used with almost universal obedience. Their authority is born of their usefulness. And few things are more powerful in trade than a rule that everyone understands and everyone considers it convenient to respect.

International arbitration: justice for contracts without a homeland

The second great contribution of the ICC is its role in international arbitration. In a contract between companies from different countries, one of the great questions is what will happen if a dispute arises. Resorting to the courts of one of the parties may generate distrust in the other; litigating in unfamiliar jurisdictions can be slow, costly and difficult to predict.

In response, international arbitration offers a neutral, flexible and specialised route. The ICC has made this field one of its hallmarks. The Chamber itself states that its experience, rigour and innovative rules have made it one of the world’s leading arbitral institutions, with case-management teams distributed internationally.

The importance of its International Court of Arbitration is not limited to administering proceedings. Its authority derives from the trust accumulated over decades: ICC arbitration clauses included in international contracts, specialised arbitrators, procedures adapted to complex disputes, and the constant aspiration that awards may be recognised and enforced in accordance with international standards.

Moreover, the ICC has just updated its rules. The ICC Arbitration Rules 2026 entered into force on 1 June 2026 and apply to cases received by the ICC International Court of Arbitration from that date. According to the institution, the new rules seek to improve efficiency, clarity and the management of proceedings, while preserving the flexibility, neutrality and procedural integrity of the system.

There is a deeper diplomatic lesson here: international trade needs mechanisms of legal peace. Where political borders separate, arbitration offers a space of trust. It does not eliminate conflict, but it civilises it. It does not replace state courts, but it provides a consensual, technical and transnational form of justice.

Payment instruments: selling, buying and trusting

The third great field in which the ICC has left a profound mark is that of international payment instruments, especially documentary credits, demand guarantees, collections and the banking rules that make it possible to finance foreign trade operations.

In international trade, the seller fears delivering the goods and not being paid; the buyer fears paying and not receiving what was agreed. Between those two fears stands the bank, and among banks arises the need for clear rules. This is where texts such as UCP 600, the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, drafted by the ICC, come into play.

The ICC Academy recalls that, for more than 85 years, the ICC’s UCP rules have governed documentary credit operations worldwide, and that the UCP 600 version forms the basis of many letter-of-credit transactions.

This is not merely a matter of banking technique. It is a matter of trust. The documentary credit allows payment to depend on documents – invoices, bills of lading, certificates of origin, insurance policies – and not on subjective assessments or uncertain promises. The bank does not physically examine the goods; it examines documents. That is why the rules on presentation, compliance, time limits, discrepancies and banking responsibility are essential.

Together with UCP 600, the ICC has also developed rules such as URDG 758 for demand guarantees, URC 522 for documentary collections, standard international banking practices and new instruments adapted to the digitalisation of trade. The ICC has also promoted the eUCP supplement, conceived as a digital complement to UCP 600 in order to allow more agile and secure handling of documentary credits in electronic environments.

The evolution is significant. World trade was born on paper: bills of lading, letters of credit, certificates, policies. Today it is moving towards electronic documents, digital platforms and automated financing. But the need for common rules remains. The medium changes; the requirement of trust does not.

An authority born of trust

The most interesting thing about the International Chamber of Commerce is that its authority does not resemble the classical authority of States.

A civil code, a commercial law or an administrative regulation is obeyed because it comes from a public authority. By contrast, the ICC rules are accepted because the economic world has recognised them as useful, balanced and technically sound. References to them are frequently found in the case law of countries around the world, Spain included, where they are recognised as part of the national corpus iuris through usages and international commercial custom, without any need for a country to have signed or acceded to them.

This gives them a singular character. Its texts live inside contracts. They are incorporated by the will of the parties. They circulate in letters of credit, arbitration clauses, transport operations, bank guarantees and international sales. They are not state law in the strict sense, but they decisively influence global legal and economic practice.

It could be said that the ICC has created a kind of practical law of international trade: a law born not of imposition, but of repetition; not of sovereignty, but of consensus; not of politics, but of the accumulated experience of those who trade, finance, transport, insure and resolve disputes.

That is perhaps one of the great lessons of this institution: in the international world, not everything is built through solemn treaties. Sometimes true stability is born of discreet rules, well drafted and accepted by all.

José Vicente Rubio Eire