Guides
Trade Fair Glossary: Essential English Business Terms for Negotiating
A practical terminology guide for Italian companies exhibiting at international trade fairs, in the context of Brexit and new US tariffs.
Taking your products to an international trade fair is a significant investment: the stand, travel, samples, and promotional materials. But the real work begins when you sit down at the table with a potential foreign buyer and start discussing commercial terms. At that stage, the wrong word — or worse, a word you simply do not understand — can turn a promising deal into a costly mistake.
Negotiating with partners from other countries means being prepared to conduct business in English with counterparts who take their familiarity of technical terms entirely for granted. Post-Brexit, with the United Kingdom outside the European customs area, and in a US market increasingly shaped by tariffs and aggressive trade policies, command of commercial negotiation vocabulary is an essential strategic asset. Getting a word wrong can mean taking on costs you never planned to absorb.
A general English dictionary will not get you very far when you need to close a contract. This guide provides the essential terminology you need to negotiate in English without surprises. The three sections below cover the Incoterms 2020 and their official Italian translations, false friends that cause the costliest misunderstandings, and phrases most commonly used in negotiations with American and British partners.
Negotiating with partners from other countries means being prepared to conduct business in English with counterparts who take their familiarity of technical terms entirely for granted. Post-Brexit, with the United Kingdom outside the European customs area, and in a US market increasingly shaped by tariffs and aggressive trade policies, command of commercial negotiation vocabulary is an essential strategic asset. Getting a word wrong can mean taking on costs you never planned to absorb.
A general English dictionary will not get you very far when you need to close a contract. This guide provides the essential terminology you need to negotiate in English without surprises. The three sections below cover the Incoterms 2020 and their official Italian translations, false friends that cause the costliest misunderstandings, and phrases most commonly used in negotiations with American and British partners.
The Key Incoterms: What They Really Mean and How They Translate
Incoterms are commercial terms standardised by the International Chamber of Commerce that define precisely where the seller’s responsibility ends, and the buyer’s begins in terms of delivery, risk, transport costs, and customs clearance. The current version is Incoterms 2020. Below are the most relevant terms for companies exporting to the United Kingdom and the United States, with official Italian translations based on Confindustria Emilia terminology.
EXW – Ex Works — Franco Fabbrica
The seller makes the goods available at their own premises. From that point, all costs and risks pass to the buyer. It may appear to be the most advantageous arrangement for the seller, but since the United Kingdom is no longer part of the European Union, EXW now involves customs responsibilities that are always worth clarifying with a freight forwarder.
FCA – Free Carrier — Franco Vettore
The goods are delivered to the carrier at the agreed location designated by the buyer. It is the most versatile Incoterm and well suited to multimodal transport. In the post-Brexit context, this term works well because it allows the point at which customs responsibility transfers to be defined precisely.
DAP – Delivered at Place — Reso nel Luogo
The seller delivers the goods to the agreed destination, without import customs clearance. Duties remain the buyer’s responsibility. With US tariffs evolving rapidly, this term exposes the buyer to variable and unpredictable costs, a detail that should always be clarified at the quotation stage.
DDP – Delivered Duty Paid — Reso Sdoganato
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the seller assumes all costs here, including customs duties in the destination country. This term can become very onerous towards the United States and post-Brexit United Kingdom.
CIF – Cost, Insurance and Freight — Costo, Assicurazione e Nolo
The seller covers transport and insurance to the port of destination. It is widely used in Anglo-Saxon negotiations for sea freight, particularly to the United States.
False Friends: The Words You Think You Know
The real danger in commercial negotiations in English is not the words you do not know; it is the ones you think you do. Here are the most treacherous false friends in the context of a business negotiation.
Tariff ≠ tariffa (in the everyday sense)
In Italian, tariffa refers generically to a price or service charge. In commercial English, particularly in today’s geopolitical climate, tariff almost always means customs duty: a government-imposed levy on imports. When an American buyer says we need to factor in the new tariffs, they are talking about fiscal charges imposed by the government, not a price list. With US trade policy in constant flux, this word comes up in almost every negotiation and confusing it can lead to quotations that are completely off the mark.
Free ≠ free of charge (gratuito)
In Incoterms, free means franco — that is, “up to the point of…”. FCA stands for Free Carrier, which in Italian becomes Franco Vettore: the seller is “free” of responsibility once the goods have been handed over to the carrier. Interpreting free as “at no cost” leads to serious misunderstandings at the contract stage. Similarly, FOB – Free on Board (Franco a Bordo) means that the supplier “frees” the goods on board the vessel — the point from which all costs and risk become the buyer’s responsibility.
Duty ≠ obligation (obbligo)
In a customs context, duty means a customs charge or import tax: the specific levy applied to a particular product category. Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) means that the seller has paid the customs duties, not that they have fulfilled some generic obligation. Not to be confused with tariff, which refers to the broader schedule of duties imposed by a government on imported goods — the overall policy measure. When politicians speak of tariffs, they mean sweeping trade measures; when a customs agent talks about duty, they mean the precise amount payable on that specific product.
Quote ≠ quota
In commercial English, quote or quotation means a price offer or estimate. Can you send me a quote? is a request for a commercial offer, not a reference to quantitative restrictions. The Italian word quota, by contrast, tends to be used in the sense of market share or a quantitative limit.
Charge ≠ carico
Charge means an additional cost or fee. Additional charges may apply is a warning that extra costs may arise, not that someone is being assigned a task.
Useful Expressions to Know
Some phrases circulate in English-language trade fair negotiations so automatically that they are used without explanation, with the assumption that the other party knows them. Recognising them allows you to respond with confidence and put together credible offers.
Landed cost / landed price
The total cost of goods “landed” at the destination — that is, inclusive of transport, insurance, duties, and any other expense up to the customer’s warehouse. When an American buyer asks what’s your landed cost?, they want to know how much the goods will actually cost them once they are physically available in their country. With tariffs under constant review, this figure can shift within weeks.
All-in price
Similar to the landed cost, this indicates a price that includes everything, with no additional line items.
Lead time
The delivery timeframe from order confirmation to goods availability. At trade fairs, the question comes up constantly: what’s your lead time for this product? A vague answer can stall a negotiation.
MOQ — Minimum Order Quantity
The minimum quantity per order. A term that comes up systematically in the early stages of contact and must be communicated clearly to avoid misaligned expectations.
Customs clearance
The process of passing goods through customs. Since Brexit, every shipment to the UK requires a customs clearance procedure that Italian companies simply did not have to deal with before. Knowing how to name this process in English is essential for coordinating logistics with British agents and freight forwarders.
Mastering these expressions, and recognising them at the right moment, is what separates a negotiation that moves forward from one that stalls over a linguistic misunderstanding. This is where the support of an interpreter specialising in commercial settings stops being a cost and becomes a tangible competitive advantage.
Have you invested in a trade fair stand and want to make sure that deals don’t fall through because of language barriers at the negotiating table? Get in touch to bring a reliable language partner into your commercial negotiations, someone who will protect and maximise the return on your international trade fair investment.
