DAP or DDP for shipments into the EU
Under DDP the seller clears the import and pays duty and import VAT. What that requires of a seller from outside the EU, and when DAP fits better.
Under DAP, the seller delivers to the agreed place in the EU and the buyer clears the import. Under DDP, the seller also clears the import and pays for it. For a seller from outside the EU, DDP means becoming the importer: an EU-established declarant has to lodge the declaration, the seller owes the customs debt alongside it, and in Portugal the seller becomes liable for the import VAT and must register through a fiscal representative.
Suppose a maker of solar inverters from outside the EU is asked by a buyer in Portugal for a delivered price, duties paid. The quote takes a minute to write. What it commits the seller to takes longer to read, and most of it sits outside the Incoterms rule itself.
What do DAP and DDP each say?
Incoterms 2020 is the current edition of the International Chamber of Commerce’s trade terms, with eleven rules. Two of them cover delivery at the buyer’s end without the seller unloading.
Under DAP, Delivered at Place, ICC Academy explains that “the seller delivers the goods and transfers the risks to the buyer once the goods are at the agreed place of destination, ready for unloading”, and that “the buyer is responsible for carrying out and paying for import clearance”.
Under DDP, Delivered Duty Paid, the seller is responsible for carrying out and paying all customs formalities: export, import and, where applicable, transit. ICC Academy notes that the import side “may be difficult for a foreign seller”, and adds its own caution: where the seller does not want to manage import clearance, or is prevented by local rules in the destination country, DAP is the more suitable rule.
The rule allocates tasks and costs between seller and buyer. It does not change who customs law treats as liable. That is set by EU and national law.
What does DDP mean under EU customs law?
The Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, requires the declarant to be established in the EU. Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, adopted on 16 September 2026, replaces that code; the articles cited here are those that apply today. Article 170(2): “The declarant shall be established in the customs territory of the Union.” A seller established outside the EU therefore cannot lodge its own import declaration for a regular flow of goods.
It can act through a customs representative. Under Article 18(1), an indirect representative acts “in his or her own name but on behalf of another person”, and under Article 18(2) the representative must be established in the EU. The representative is then the declarant, and under Article 77(3) “the person on whose behalf the customs declaration is made shall also be a debtor”. A seller that agrees DDP and clears through an indirect representative is a debtor of the customs debt on every shipment.
The seller also needs an EORI number, registered, according to the European Commission, in “the EU country in which they intend to carry out their first customs operation”. See what an EORI number is, and what it is not.
Who pays import VAT under DDP?
Article 201 of the VAT Directive leaves it to each member state: import VAT “shall be payable by any person or persons designated or recognised as liable by the Member State of importation.”
In Portugal, the Código do IVA designates “as pessoas singulares ou colectivas que, segundo a legislação aduaneira, realizem importações de bens” (article 2.º n.º 1 b)). A seller that carries out the import under DDP is that person. As a non-resident with no seat, permanent establishment or domicile in any member state, it then falls under article 30.º n.º 2, under which such businesses “estão obrigados a nomear um representante”. It must appoint a fiscal representative, which owes the VAT with it (n.º 3 and n.º 5).
In short, under DDP into Portugal, the seller is liable for the import VAT, needs a Portuguese VAT registration to carry it, and holds that registration through a fiscal representative. Its onward sale to the buyer is then a supply in Portugal with its own VAT treatment: under the second paragraph of Article 32 of the VAT Directive, where transport begins outside the EU, the importer’s supply and any subsequent supply take place in the member state of importation. Whether the VAT is then paid in cash at the border or declared in the return is a separate question, covered in import VAT in the return, not at the border. The representative rule is set out in who needs a fiscal representative in Portugal.
What does DAP leave to the buyer?
Under DAP, the buyer clears the goods, so the buyer is the declarant or appoints one, owes the customs debt, and accounts for the import VAT under its own registration. For a buyer established in the EU with an import desk, that is routine.
It also makes the buyer the importer under the product safety rules for consumer goods, with its name on the product. That is a larger commitment than it looks, and some buyers decline it. The consequences for a distribution relationship are set out in importer or distributor: who holds EU stock?.
A third option: stock already in the EU
Many sellers avoid the choice at the level of each order. Goods are imported once, at wholesale level, through a party established in the EU named on the declaration, and released for free circulation into stock in Europe. The customer then buys goods that are already inside the EU, and the delivery term covers a movement within the single market, with no import on the way.
That shifts the question from “who clears this shipment” to “who clears the stock”, and it is answered once. Selling to 27 EU markets from one import walks through the model.
How this runs at EFC
A seller that wants to quote delivered, duty-paid prices without an entity of its own needs the pieces DDP assumes: an EU-established declarant, a Portuguese VAT registration and somewhere to hold the goods. At EFC’s base in Portugal, run with its logistics partner, EFC can stand as importer of record on the imports, with the seller’s Portuguese VAT registration held through fiscal representation and the stock held in the same operation. Which Incoterms rule goes into a sales contract remains the seller’s commercial decision, taken with its own advisers.
The rule text and the law
The Incoterms 2020 rules themselves are published by ICC and are not reproduced here. This article reads them against EU customs law and Portuguese VAT law; other member states designate the person liable for import VAT under their own rules. It is not legal or tax advice.
Sources
| Label | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Incoterms 2020 | current edition; eleven rules | ICC, Incoterms 2020, opened 2026-09-22 |
| DAP | seller delivers and transfers risk at the agreed place, ready for unloading; buyer carries out and pays for import clearance | ICC Academy, DAP and DDP Incoterms 2020 explained, opened 2026-09-22 |
| DDP | seller carries out and pays all customs formalities, including import; DAP more suitable where the seller does not want to, or is prevented from, managing import clearance | ICC Academy, DAP and DDP Incoterms 2020 explained, opened 2026-09-22 |
| DDP, local rules | some countries prohibit foreign entities from carrying out import customs and tax formalities | ICC Academy, EXW and DDP Incoterms 2020 explained, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Declarant established in the EU | ”The declarant shall be established in the customs territory of the Union” | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 170, as adopted, on legislation.gov.uk, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Customs representation | indirect representative acts in its own name; representative established in the EU | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 18, as adopted, on legislation.gov.uk, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Debtor | declarant is the debtor; in indirect representation the person on whose behalf the declaration is made is also a debtor | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 77, as adopted, on legislation.gov.uk, opened 2026-09-22 |
| New Union Customs Code | Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 adopted on 16 September 2026, in force | European Commission, EU Customs Reform, opened 2026-09-22 |
| EORI | non-EU operators register in the EU country of their first customs operation | European Commission, EORI number, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Import VAT, person liable | designated or recognised by the member state of importation | Directive 2006/112/EC, Article 201, EU text on legislation.gov.uk, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Place of supply after import | where transport begins in a third country, the importer’s supply and any subsequent supply take place in the member state of importation | Directive 2006/112/EC, Article 32, EU text on legislation.gov.uk, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Portugal, importers are VAT taxpayers | persons who, under customs legislation, carry out imports of goods | Código do IVA, artigo 2.º, Portal das Finanças, opened 2026-09-22 |
| Portugal, VAT representative | obligatory for non-residents with no establishment in any member state; representative owes the VAT; business jointly liable | Código do IVA, artigo 30.º, Portal das Finanças, opened 2026-09-22 |