Transport Documents in Forex Trading
The carriage of goods in Forex trading involves more than one mode of transport. Goods are carried up to airport or seaport by land and from there they are transported to the buyer’s country. The goods may again be transported by rail or land to reach the buyer’s place. Carriage by each mode of transport for Forex trading is covered by a separate contract of carriage. But the modern trend is the move towards multimodal transport, providing for the continuous obligation of the carrier for more than one mode of transport. In fact, the major reason for the last two revisions of unique selling proposition has been the advances in transport technology.
In trading Forex, shipping occupies an essential place as a mode of transport. The document evidencing the carriage of goods by sea is the bill of lading. It is the document issued by the agents or shipping company to do trading online, acknowledging the receipt of goods for carriage that are deliverable to the consignee or consigner in the same condition as they were received. Bill of lading offers various functions that are evidence of contract of carriage, receipt for the goods received by the carrier as well as document of title to goods for real trading online.
Trading Forex also includes port of loading as well as port of discharge as stipulated in the letter of credit. However, bill of lading that indicates a place of taking in charge different from the port of loading or a place of final destination different from the post of discharge. During trading online, goods carried on the deck of the ship are subject to the risk of damage and therefore, if the bill of lading mentions that the goods are carried on deck it is not accepted under a letter of credit unless the credit authorizes it.
Forex online trading includes many other types of documents of bill of lading such as charter party, state, through or port to port, house, liner, short form and third party bill of ladings. For Forex online trading as well as real trading online needs other transport documents such as inland waterway, rail or road transport documents, post receipts and courier receipts.
There are many more documents needed for Forex trading such as bill of exchange, transport documents, marine insurance policy, invoices and other certificates such as weight certificate, packing list and quality test certificate. Weight certificate certifies the weight of the goods exported. Packing list details the goods that each particular packing contains and quality test certificate may be required to ensure the quality of goods exported.
Thus, it is not necessary for trading online that each set of documents should contain all the above documents. It is dependant upon the agreement between a few parties or more of the documents may be needed for a transaction. The documents may be drawn under a letter of credit or they may be without a letter of credit. Where the documents are drawn under a letter of credit, the provisions of uniform customs as well as practice for documentary credits must be kept in mind.
