China's top arbitration body, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, is revising its rules so that it can deal with disputes among Chinese firms, said Li Yong, deputy director of the commission.
"The new rules will be issued very soon," he said.
The new regulations will allow the commission to deal with foreign-related cases, but also domestic arbitration.
The commission, established in 1954 to handle business disputes between foreign companies and Chinese enterprises, revised its rules in 1998.
These allowed it to deal with disputes among enterprises which used foreign investment and disputes between such firms and Chinese individuals or companies. Li told an arbitration seminar, co-organized by the commission and US law firm Coudert Brothers, yesterday that international commercial arbitration will play a bigger role in settling trade disputes after China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO).
China's WTO membership is expected to spur the country's foreign trade and trigger a new round of foreign investment.
Hu Kangsheng, deputy director of the National People's Congress's Legal Affairs Committee, predicted a bigger role for arbitration organizations after the country joins the WTO.
He urged domestic arbitration bodies to look at how disputes are worked out in the WTO and to suggest new arbitration methods to the government and companies.
At present, there are 150 arbitration institutes across China. Last year, they dealt with 7,400 cases involving 17 billion yuan (US$2 billion).
(China Daily August 30, 2000)
