General

On May 17th, the 2023 Work Conference of the Commercial Law and Practice Committee and the Enterprise Import and Export Trade Practice Seminar jointly organized by the Secretariat of the China National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce and the Xiamen Council for the Promotion of International Trade were held in Xiamen. Yu Min, Minister of the Secretariat of the ICC China National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, and Yan Zhiping, Vice President of the Xiamen Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Xiamen International Chamber of Commerce, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. Members of the committee, relevant enterprises, industry representatives, and others attended the meeting.

The Commission on Commercial Law and Practice is one of the professional committees established under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), responsible for the formulation and promotion of rules for international commercial activities. The International Rules for the Interpretation of Trade Phrases formulated by it have become the structural rules for international commercial activities. In recent years, the Commission has vigorously promoted international commercial rules and practices, actively participated in the formulation of commercial rules and practices, and played a crucial role in resolving international disputes.

Yu Min chaired the meeting and presented a report on the work of the committee for the first half of 2023. She stated that in the first half of 2023, the ICC China Commercial Law and Practice Committee carried out work in recommending personnel, promoting international commercial rules and practices, strengthening international exchanges and cooperation, promoting the construction of foreign-related legal service talent teams, and promoting trade digitization. In the second half of the year, the committee will continue to strengthen its coordination with the International Chamber of Commerce, promote training on Incoterms 2020, conduct digital research on ports, and hold more hot topic conferences in the commercial field.

As an important fulcrum of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road, Xiamen plays a very important role in the construction of the "the Belt and Road" and international economic and cultural exchanges. Xiamen is making every effort to build the Maritime Silk Central Legal Affairs Area into an important platform for deepening reform, expanding opening up, and building a first-class business environment in China. Yan Zhiping stated that in recent years, the Xiamen Council for the Promotion of International Trade has fully relied on the legal resource advantages of the trade promotion system, actively participated in the construction of the Haisi Central Legal District, and promoted the establishment of the world's first representative office of the International Organization for the Prevention and Resolution of Commercial Disputes in Xiamen. A group of institutions such as the China Maritime Arbitration Commission and the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission have established arbitration centers and trial centers in Xiamen. Last year, the second China Singapore International Commercial Dispute Resolution Forum was also held in Xiamen, which became the main venue for regular consultations among experts of the China Singapore Joint Mechanism for Commercial Dispute Resolution. In March of this year, the 7th International Mediation Summit Forum was also held in Xiamen, forming rich research results, which provided useful reference and effective assistance for Xiamen to explore the establishment of a mechanism for resolving commercial disputes that is in line with international standards, and once again enhanced the international trade reputation and influence of the Haisi Central Legal District.

"The correct use of terms is very helpful to the correct performance of the contract and to avoid risks. Once disputes arise due to various reasons, the correct understanding and application of terms is also conducive to the settlement of disputes." Wang Qiang, Vice Chairman of ICC China Commercial Law and Practice Committee and full-time external director of China National Machinery Industry Corporation, combined with the case, To analyze the use of trade terms in dispute resolution and their impact on the rights and obligations of the parties, and to suggest that enterprises pay attention to the correct use of international trade terms.

Jiang Qi, Vice Chairman of the ICC China Business Law and Practice Committee and Chairman of the National Board of Directors of Beijing Haotian Law Firm, delivered a special speech on "Legal Risks and Prevention in Supply Chain Finance Business under the New Situation", introducing how to interpret legal risks and the latest trends in supply chain finance for the present enterprises.

In the face of the changes in the current international situation, Wang Dong, a senior researcher of the National Center of Sinosure, introduced how to judge the project risk of a country from three dimensions. The first is the national dimension, global political risk, and sovereign credit risk. The second dimension is the industry dimension, which includes the current situation of the industry in this country or region and the industry policies of this country. The third is the enterprise dimension. The enterprise capacity, solvency and payment capacity of the counterparty depend on whether the partner is reliable for overseas investment.

Wang Dong believes that the game of major powers will continue to drive changes in the global strategic landscape, reshape the global industrial landscape through climate issues, and reshape international trade governance rules and systems through sustainable debt management as an opportunity. Regarding the suggestion for enterprises to go global, Wang Dong believes that the first step is to establish a comprehensive national risk management system. For example, China has mediated the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and in the future, the Middle East region may become a target area for Chinese enterprises to explore. In addition, Chinese enterprises often encounter "countervailing measures" abroad. Under the WTO framework, the government is not allowed to directly intervene in enterprise operations. However, it is stipulated that the country can protect the overseas interests of domestic enterprises through export credit insurance, which is equivalent to the government extending a hand to export insurance. From the perspective of China Export&Credit Insurance Corporation, export credit product services, as well as country services for enterprises, including the country risk analysis report issued every year, can reflect the overall characteristics of risks to a certain extent.

In 2022, the Xiamen Council for the Promotion of International Trade issued over 100000 certificates, ranking first in Fujian Province and among the top in the national trade promotion system. For international trade enterprises, commercial certificates play an important role in the export process. In short, CCPIT certifies the documents of enterprises and individuals' foreign-related business activities. The scope of application is mainly goods trade, technology trade, etc. The certified documents are mainly foreign trade documents, such as Commercial invoice, Customs declaration, packing list, etc.

"The commercial certificate has strong enforcement effect, especially in the Middle East, Africa, South America and countries along the the Belt and Road. It has a wide scope of application and is widely recognized by more than 200 countries and regions around the world. It is convenient and fast to apply and can protect the reputation of enterprises to the greatest extent." Zhu Chaoyang, representative of the Commercial Certification Section of Xiamen Commercial Law Center, introduced the commercial certificate and free sale certificate of the Xiamen Council for the Promotion of International Trade to the enterprises present Enterprises are welcome to handle business such as issuing brand certificates.