Issuing force majeure certificates, setting up legal support platforms and launching the online mediation service ... Since the outbreak of COVID-19, in face of the difficulties and pain points encountered by foreign trade and foreign-funded enterprises, CCPIT has strived to innovate the commercial legal services work mode, improve the quality of service, provide multiple support for enterprises to resume work and production, form a package of services called the “Three-Noes, Two-Fasts and One-Full”, and actively contribute to the work of stabilizing foreign trade and investment.
No Concerns
On behalf of Chinese businesses who are engaged in foreign trade, CCPIT provides various types of commercial legal services for businesses to ease their concerns and reduce the impact of the outbreak on enterprises. After the epidemic broke out, many foreign trade and foreign-funded enterprises struggled to perform their contracts or deliver goods on time. The CCPIT Commercial Certification Center acted immediately to help enterprises to cut losses by issuing force majeure certificates. At the same time, the Commercial Certification Center also issued certificates of proof for U.S, - and Korea-funded enterprises in China to help them protect their rights and interests. Until now, the national CCPIT system has issued a total of more than 6,600 force majeure certificates, involving total contract amount of more than 647.7 billion yuan. In addition, the CCPIT Mediation Center collected information on the impact of the outbreak on more than 100 enterprises, prepared reports on the pain points and difficulties that the enterprises encountered and guided enterprises to better respond to similar problems. They also collated relevant trade protection measures taken by some countries to provide early warning information for enterprises.
No Meetings
In order to alleviate the impact of the epidemic on enterprises and provide high-quality legal services for them, business units including the CCPIT Mediation Center, CCPIT Commercial Certification Center, CCPIT Hong Kong Patent Company and CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office have launched online services. Among them, the Mediation Centre has launched an online mediation system in response to the increase in disputes among enterprises affected by the pandemic. The enterprises can consult online when they encounter any commercial contract disputes and receive professional responses from professional mediators within 24 hours after submitting the questions. The CCPIT Department of Legal Affairs, the CMAC Secretariat and the China Academy of Arbitration Law (CAAL) hosted online training and seminars focusing on common commercial legal issues during the outbreak which benefited tens of thousands of enterprises.
No Interruptions
During the pandemic, foreign trade and foreign-funded enterprises faced many urgent issues. These enterprises raised many concerns and often needed an instant response. CCPIT established a 24-hour comprehensive legal support platform for cross-border trade and investment businesses and opened various consultation channels such as hotlines and emails to ensure "uninterrupted" help for enterprises to connect with legal experts in relevant fields and to solve problems. To date, the platform has answered more than 60,000 business-related inquiries. To help enterprises apply for exemptions of goods affected by the tariffs imposed by the United States during the pandemic, CCPIT has dealt with business inquiries through hotlines and online questions. To date, CCPIT has answered 24,267 corporate inquiries.
Fast Feedback
In order to solve the unexpected problems encountered by enterprises during the epidemic, CCPIT organized a commercial legal expert service group to receive consultation from enterprises, and coordinated 500 mediators to provide online mediation services to ensure that each enterprise's legal service needs are answered within 24 hours. Through rapid feedback, the interests and rights of the businesses involved are protected. CCPIT Wenzhou City Committee helped more than 120 exhibition enterprises in Zhejiang Province to put off the payment of their exhibition fees for the MIDO Eyewear Show in Milan until next year. The Department of Legal Affairs, together with CCPIT Guangdong Committee, provided answers to enterprises applying for exemptions of goods affected by tariffs imposed by the United States, and Guangdong First Semiconductor Materials Co., Ltd. received two batches of tariff relief worth more than RMB 6.4 million. The CCPIT Hubei Committee helped Hubei Oil and Grain Group to regulate their import contracts and add arbitration clauses applicable to Chinese law to help the company guard against risks.
Fast Response
Since the outbreak, CCPIT collected and released information of restrictive measures taken by countries (regions) on China due to the pandemic to help Chinese enterprises avoid losses. So far, CCPIT has issued 8 reports with a total of 687 updated specific restrictive measures which were reviewed more than 100,000 times. In addition, CCPIT worked with over 50 international law firms and professional legal services around the world and released the Legal Guidelines for Foreign Trade Enterprises on Applying Force Majeure and Changes in Circumstances Provisions under the COVID-19 to provide reference for the foreign trade enterprises. Since the implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and its supporting regulations, CCPIT has conducted investigations on issues that 225 foreign-invested enterprises have encountered and reported them to relevant departments.
Full Business Chain
The outbreak of the COVID-19 has affected foreign affairs related economic activity to varying degrees, and many enterprises face problems such as breach of contracts, compensation claims and legal liabilities, which bring serious challenges to the work of stabilizing foreign trade and investment. CCPIT actively integrates its legal resources and prepares for legal risks through early warning and advisory training services. In addition, CCPIT provides certification and IP agency group services to support legal matters and legal affairs in progress. Through friction response and mediation and arbitration services, CCPIT achieved great results in its endeavors to settle legal disputes by providing a full chain of commercial legal services (before, during and after) for enterprises.