Communist China's Foreign Trade Contracts and Means of Settling Disputes

International trade involves a host of legal problems. Basic among these are the institution of contracts and the principles of settling disputes. Nations may enter into trade treaties and agreements to define and regulate their commercial relations, but actual transactions are always concluded on the basis of contracts. In the case of disputes arising from these contracts, the parties often resort to conciliatory or arbitrary means instead of court litigation.

Communist China has over the course of the past eighteen years established trade relations with more than 120 countries and regions. In so doing, the Peking regime has relied upon the institution of contracts to conclude its transactions and has employed various means to adjust disputes. The exact number of these contracts is not known; but in view of the regime's total volume of foreign trade,' it must be well into the thousands. Due to the political implications and economic interests involved in these contracts, hardly any of them have been made public.