Delivery of documents means delivering the documents that meet the requirements to the correct party in the correct manner at the time and place specified in the contract or letter of credit. Usually, documents should be delivered to the bank under the collection and letter of credit payment methods, and should be delivered directly to the importer under the remittance method.
1. Delivery of documents under letter of credit
If the letter of credit stipulates a delivery period, the beneficiary shall deliver the documents within the specified period; if the letter of credit does not clearly stipulate a delivery period, the bank will not accept documents submitted after 21 days from the date of shipment, but in any case, the submission of documents shall not be later than the validity period of the letter of credit; if the expiration date of the letter of credit or the last day of the delivery period coincides with the closing day of the bank accepting the documents, the specified expiration date or the last day of the delivery period will be extended to the first business day of the bank’s opening. However, if the bank’s suspension of business is due to natural disasters, riots, unrest, rebellion, war, strikes, work stoppages or any other reasons beyond the control of the bank itself, the expiration date or the last day of the delivery period specified in the letter of credit cannot be postponed. Whenever possible, the beneficiary should deliver the documents as soon as possible. The advantage of doing so is that once a problem with the document is found, it is still in time to remedy it; if there is no problem with the document, the exchange can be collected as soon as possible.
2. Delivery of documents under collection payment method
When choosing D/P or D/A payment method, the exporter shall deliver the documents to the collection bank at the export place for collection after shipping the goods. Collection delivery of documents is more flexible, and the type, number, content and delivery time of the documents shall be determined by the exporter according to the contract and the situation of the importer.
When delivering the documents, the exporter shall provide the collection bank with a clear collection instruction letter, and some banks shall print a fixed format for the exporter to fill in. The collection bank must verify that the documents received are consistent with those listed in the collection instruction letter on the surface. If any omission is found, it shall immediately notify the exporter who delivered the documents. In addition, the collection bank has no obligation to review the documents. The collection bank is only authorized to handle collection according to the instructions of the principal (exporter) and the International Chamber of Commerce’s “Uniform Rules for Collections” and cannot arbitrarily exceed, modify, omit or delay the exporter’s instructions.
3. Document delivery under T/T payment method
Depending on the time of payment, T/T is divided into two categories: pre-T/T and post-T/T. Pre-T/T is further divided into “pre-shipment T/T” and “post-shipment T/T”.
(1) Under the pre-shipment T/T payment method, the exporter has received the full contract amount from the importer by telegraphic transfer before shipment. After shipment, the exporter directly sends all documents including the ocean bill of lading to the importer, or instructs the shipping company to telex the bill of lading to the importer.
(2) Under the post-shipment T/T payment method, the exporter faxes the ocean bill of lading to the importer after shipment. After seeing the faxed bill of lading, the importer telegraphic transfers the contract amount to the exporter. After receiving the payment, the exporter sends all documents including the ocean bill of lading to the importer.
(3) Under the post-shipment T/T payment method, the exporter sends all documents including the ocean bill of lading to the importer after shipment.