As resumption of work and production is on the horizon, fighting against the epidemic of COVID-19 in China has entered a critical and most demanding stage. CCPIT, resolutely following the important instructions of President Xi Jinping and the decisions and deployment of the CPC Central Committee, has been actively performing the duties and functions to provide services to enterprises, and striving to take a dual approach of ensuring both epidemic prevention and business development.

With resumption of work and production continues on its pace, CCPIT, through innovative working mechanism and by playing its advantage in the field of external relations, has been assisting vast number of enterprises, especially foreign trade enterprises, to solve practical difficulties so as to mitigate the impact of the epidemic. The key measures cover the following aspects:

First, to carry out multi-level research to reflect concerns that enterprises expressed on resuming production. CCPIT headquarter has organized sub-councils in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hebei, Guangdong, etc. to gather information on difficulties that enterprises encountered in the process of resuming production, so as to effectively reflect the needs of enterprises and to contribute to stabilizing national economic operation. What’s more, in view of the possible legal issues and dispute resolution arising from the epidemic of COVID-19,  China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission（CIETAC）of CCPIT has organized expert groups from nine key industries to collect research topics and formulate research plans, and worked with all sectors of society to deal with the possible legal risks imposed by the epidemic to the economic, trade and investment activities of enterprises.

Second, to utilize global cooperation network to escort enterprises going abroad. CIETAC has actively mobilized the global legal cooperation network to collect and sort out legal problems encountered by Chinese enterprises in trade and investment in relevant countries since the outbreak of the epidemic, and compiled legal guides on them. Law firms and professional legal service agencies of more than 50 countries have supported and contributed to the work, helping enterprises handle legal disputes over foreign-related contracts properly. In addition, CIETAC has been striving to minimize the impact of the epidemic to enterprises, and to this end overseas business information has been collected and updated in a timely manner to assist enterprises to prevent risks, arrange resumption of work and production on a rational pace and coordinate planning of production.

Third, to compile legal guide and provide multiple online services. CIETAC has compiled the “Legal Guide for Foreign Trade Enterprises on Applying Force Majeure and Change of Circumstances under the COVID-19” , which is based on the legal basis that enterprises intend to claim exemption from liability in accordance with force majeure and change of circumstances provisions, and covers questions and answers concerning the most striking issues, legal provisions and judicial practice in major jurisdictions, recommendations to enterprises, reference templates for force majeure notice, procedures for applying for force majeure certificate, etc., to provide legal support for foreign trade enterprises to deal with related issues.

In addition, responding to the urgent need of enterprises on force majeure certificates, CCPIT Commercial Certification Center has sought innovative working mechanism and method to launch service of online live broadcasting concerning business publicity and interpretation based on on-going study of the accumulated working experience.  The contact information for bilingual consultation on all business sectors during the epidemic has been released to the public once again to ensure that enterprises and individuals have multi-channels to access professional consultation and service on certification anytime and anywhere to help enterprises protect their legitimate rights and interests.