General

The CCPIT Wuhan Council recently held the first 2023 "the Belt and Road" series of lectures on international commercial law, focusing on two important international trade partners of Japan and South Korea, interpreting the institutional framework of economic and trade cooperation integration between China, Japan and South Korea after the RCEP takes effect, and helping enterprises to carry out economic and trade exchanges and cooperation with Japan and South Korea.

According to the data of the RCEP certificate issued by the Wuhan Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Certification System, in 2022, Japan ranked first among the export destinations for 11 consecutive months, with the monthly visa amount accounting for more than 90%, which shows that the implementation of RCEP has significantly boosted Wuhan's exports to Japan. Since the RCEP came into force one year ago, Wuhan's economic exchanges with South Korea have also continued to improve. "Benefiting from the arrangement of the RCEP trade policy, enterprises have felt real preferences and benefits." Sun Yuansong, president of the Wuhan Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that after the epidemic stabilized, the pace of Chinese enterprises' going out will accelerate, and the economic and trade exchanges and contacts between China and other countries in the world will also become more and more close. Only by constantly improving mutual understanding and resolving legal risks can the cooperation be stable and far.

"The risk of investing in Japan's social system is relatively low, and a good social comprehensive environment is even more essential for overseas investors." Yao Zhuhua, a lawyer from the Japanese law firm of Kyodo Law, said that Japan has basically established the social form of a country ruled by law, and Japan's soft environment ranks among the top in the world. At present, the biggest change in China's trade with Japan is the growth of China's enterprises' independent brands and products' international trade exports, and the gradual increase of technology content. "But the risk of intellectual property infringement is also increasing. In addition to the measures taken by the Japanese customs to protect the intellectual property rights of the import and export of products, the Japanese market is also very sensitive to intellectual property infringement." Xie Shanshan, a lawyer of Guangdong Sanhuan Huihua Law Firm, said that for example, to enter the Japanese e-commerce platforms such as Lotte and Yahoo, trademark registration certificates, trademark/technology/distribution rights authorization documents are required, The platform will be more strict in the management of intellectual property infringement than the domestic e-commerce platform, and have more decision-making power in the handling. It is suggested that enterprises must pay attention to and correctly treat the preliminary storage and data preparation of intellectual property when entering the overseas e-commerce platform. At the same time, in order to facilitate sales, some Chinese enterprises will set up dealers or subsidiaries in Japan, and many Chinese enterprises choose to cooperate with local dealers in Japan. Xie Shanshan reminded that according to the relevant regulations of Japan, if there is an infringement or intellectual property dispute, the manufacturer shall bear the liability for infringement, and the dealer will not take the legal responsibility for the manufacturer, and even the manufacturer will be required to compensate the dealer for the economic losses. The enterprise shall require the dealer to make guarantee clauses for the stability of intellectual property rights, non-infringement and liability for infringement.

Japan's protection of intellectual property rights also includes that the trademark of the product or the technology itself cannot infringe the relevant patents of the local market in Japan. In order to avoid infringement disputes, Xie Shanshan suggested that Chinese enterprises could conduct evasive design or cross-licensing of their own products to reduce the cost of enterprises dealing with intellectual property disputes. "Our Chinese enterprises are no longer limited to simple foreign processing and production, but gradually grow into independent enterprises with their own design, packaging, production and export capabilities. So when enterprises can operate and export independently, they must pay attention to the construction and promotion of their own brands." Xie Shanshan reminded, When entering overseas markets, Chinese enterprises should not rely too much on foreign brands to manage their products and overseas markets, but should pay attention to their own originality and brand. The production capacity and means of production of enterprises that can process for well-known brands are already very high. It is suggested that Chinese enterprises should actively apply for overseas trademarks.

Compared with the international trade between China and Japan, a major breakthrough in the RCEP concerning the international trade between China and South Korea is that South Korea has made an important opening commitment to China's agricultural imports. Jin Zhe, a lawyer from Shandong Zhongcheng Qingtai (Qingdao) Law Firm, said that, for example, South Korea, as a large country of traditional antler consumption, is the main export target of Chinese antler, accounting for about 80% of China's total international trade exports. This time, many agricultural products including antler in the RCEP have won the tax reduction, which is a major good news for Chinese producers of agricultural products such as antler. "Making good use of the preferential tariff treatment of RCEP for export goods can enhance the price advantage of our export products in the target market." Jin Zhe suggested that for products that meet the rules of origin, we should apply for and issue the certificate of origin in a timely manner; For those that cannot meet the rules of origin for the time being, through the study of product-specific rules, we can consider adjusting the source of non-originating materials, controlling the price share of non-originating materials, and even adjusting the industrial chain layout and in-depth evaluation of the costs required for adjustment, and determine the best. "China and South Korea FTA will achieve the high-level tax reduction commitment of the two countries faster than RCEP, and the product range of zero tariff of China and South Korea FTA is 5 to 6 percentage points higher than that of RCEP." Jin Zhe reminded that at present, the comprehensive level of China and South Korea FTA is the highest, and suggested that enterprises should not only consider the relevant tax benefits of RCEP, but can carry out tariff planning according to specific commodity categories.

The reporter learned that the series of lectures on international commercial law of the "the Belt and Road" held by the Wuhan Council for the Promotion of International Trade had launched lectures on the ASEAN, European and African markets, with warm responses.