Legal-Express

China will expand the scale of two pilot schemes that allow domestic investors to access foreign assets, the country's foreign exchange regulator said on Nov 29. The scale of the outbound investment schemes — Qualified Domestic Limited Partner (QDLP) and Qualified Domestic Investment Enterprise (QDIE) — in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen will be expanded soon. The move aims further to meet domestic investors' demand for global asset allocation. The country also plans to launch the pilot QDLP program in the southern island province of Hainan and Southwest China's Chongqing municipality to support better the construction of the Hainan free trade port and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

Having accrued some two decades of implementation experience of Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and taking into account feedback from the arbitration sector, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Chinese Supreme People's Court have signed Supplemental Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The Supplemental Arrangement will be conducive to the development of Hong Kong's legal and dispute resolution services in the Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong's status as an international legal hub for legal, deal-making, and dispute resolution services will be further enhanced.

China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) has issued a set of new guidelines to deal with foreign-related commercial and maritime cases stemming from or affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. Under the fresh guidelines, parties facing difficulties due to the epidemic may apply for an extension of the time limit for submitting foreign-related certificates and evidence or filing an appeal. The guidelines stipulated that the carrier or the shipper may request the cancellation of the contract prior to the commencement of the voyage, if the contract could not be performed due to the epidemic. In terms of general carriage contract disputes, the SPC also stated that if the carrier informs the shipper in a timely manner, the carrier's exemption of liability for delay in delivery caused by the epidemic or containment measures shall be guaranteed. The guidelines is the third batch of guidelines issued by the SPC regarding civil disputes related to the COVID-19 epidemic.

In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Chinese State Council on promoting high-quality development of foreign trade, hereby put forward the following opinion on Promoting the Innovative Development of Foreign Trade. The Opinion points out that China shall adhere to new development concepts and the supply-side structural reform as the main line, unswervingly expand opening -up, stabilize the basic foreign trade and foreign investment, stabilize the industrial chain and supply chain, and further deepen scientific and technological innovation, institutional innovation, model and business innovation. Centering on the establishment of a new development pattern characterized by domestic macro-circulation and mutual promotion of domestic and international double circulation, accelerate the promotion of "five optimizations" in respect of international market layout, domestic regional layout, business entities, commodity structure and trade mode as well as foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases, trade promotion platforms and international marketing systems, cultivate new advantages in participating in international cooperation and competition under the new situation, and achieve the innovative development of foreign trade.

The central government has unveiled a package of measures to spur the growth of foreign trade. The measures were laid out in a guideline issued by the General Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, on Nov 9 in a bid to promote the high-quality and innovative development of the foreign trade sector. Key policies include offering businesses support in the utilization of technologies such as fifth-generation communication technology, virtual reality and big data to exhibit their products and conduct business consultations online, and fostering businesses with global competitiveness in the telecommunications, power grid, engineering machinery and railway sectors. The latest measures seek to add new impetus to the sector with innovative business models, offering fresh incentives to the growth of cross-border e-commerce and giving strong emphasis to the development of digital trade.

On November 13, the 2020 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Intellectual Property Trade EXPO (hereinafter referred to as “EXPO”) opened in Guangzhou. As one of the highlights of this EXPO, the patent transaction exposition area showcased in an innovative form that appeared on the online transaction platform in the form of all-day online exhibition for the first time.

It is noteworthy that the 2020 EXPO will break the space restrictions, comprehensively optimize the online display and transaction services of the online EXPO on the basis of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Intellectual Property Trade EXPO, and extensively invite leading enterprises, universities and scientific research institutions in intellectual property industries. It is more than 8 times of the scale of the last offline EXPO. According to statistics, up to now, there are over 2,400 exhibitors, including exhibitors from more than 30 countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Russia, and the number of exhibitors has increased significantly. More than 16,000 exhibits have been uploaded, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, geographical indications and so on.

On November 11, the 23rd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted and passed the decision on amending the Copyright Law, which will come into force on June 1 next year. The revised Copyright Law has improved copyright protection in cyberspace. In particular, the revised Copyright Law greatly increased the amount of statutory damages for copyright infringement and clarifying the principle of punitive damages, etc. It also provide further protection for creators to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. In addition, the revised Copyright Law has also adjusted the definition of "work", changing the expression of "film works and works created in a similar way to filming films" in the current law to "audiovisual works". This means that the scope of copyright protection will be further expanded, and new types of works such as short online videos will receive strong legal protection.

On Nov 15 at the 4th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Summit, Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan, on behalf of the Chinese government, and the ten ASEAN countries and the trade ministers of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand officially signed the RCEP agreement. RCEP agreement includes 20 chapters, covering comprehensive market access commitments for goods, services, and investment, involving tariff concessions, origin criteria, and facilitation measures. It is a comprehensive, modern, high-quality, and mutually beneficial free trade agreement. A free trade agreement covering the biggest area in the world, the RCEP agreement will lead countries in the region to achieve a high level of opening-up in trade in goods and services, as well as investment within the RCEP framework. It also will promote the region’s prosperity and stability and bring hopes for post-epidemic economic recovery against the economic backdrop caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.