What are import and export: where do the words for "bringing in" and "taking out" come from, and who needs foreign trade?

Hamid, a farmer from Fergana, dried the apricots from his orchard and sold them to a foreign buyer. On the same day, phones made abroad arrived at a shop in Tashkent. In the first case the goods left the country, in the second they came in. Both are foreign trade, only in opposite directions: one is export, the other is import.

What are import and export?

Import means bringing goods produced abroad into the country and using or selling them here. Export means taking goods from the country out abroad and selling them to a buyer there. Together they are called foreign trade.

How is it different from domestic trade? The goods cross a state border, so three things are added:

• Customs: all goods crossing the border are cleared and controlled.
• Currency: because the buyer and the seller are in different countries, settlements are often made in a foreign currency.
• Documents: the contract, the shipping documents and the customs declaration.

The customs declaration shows, by means of a code, for what purpose the goods are crossing the border. For example, in the classifier of customs procedures in the instruction on filling in the declaration, the code of the export procedure is 10, and the code of the import (release for free circulation) procedure is 40. We will get to know these codes and the other procedures in later lessons.

Where does the word come from?

Both words grew out of the same Latin verb, portare "to carry", only with a different prefix in front. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

• Import comes from Latin importare: in- "into" and portare "to carry". In Latin this verb meant "to bring in, convey". The sense of bringing in goods from another country is recorded in English from the 1540s.
• Export comes from Latin exportare: ex "out" and portare "to carry", that is, "to carry out". The sense of sending goods from one country to another is recorded in English from the 1660s.

It is easy to remember: im- means in, ex- means out, and port- in the middle means "carrying".

Why it is needed: its function and purpose

The main purpose of foreign trade: to obtain from abroad what the country lacks or what is expensive, and to sell what it produces well in a wider market. Each side benefits from this as follows:

1. To get what we do not have ourselves. No country can produce everything itself. Imports fill shops with choice.
2. To find more buyers. Hamid can sell his apricots not only in his own district but abroad as well. Export opens up a large market for the producer.
3. For foreign currency earnings. The currency earned from exports is needed to pay for imports.
4. Special knowledge for the accountant. What goes into the cost of imported goods, what happens if the exchange rate changes: without knowing this, the accounts cannot be kept correctly.

Who it works with

In foreign trade, besides the company's manager and accountant, the customs authority, the customs broker (helps prepare the declaration), the transport company and the bank (foreign currency payments) take part. Each has its own role, but all of them work around the same goods.

Useful articles on the site for a beginner in this field: «Key concepts of the Customs Code in 8 points: from declarant to customs value» and «How is the cost of imported goods built up: contract, freight, duty and exchange difference». The links are at the end of the page.

In the next lesson

In the second lesson we will look at what a customs procedure is and why the same goods cross the border under different procedures for different purposes.