Guideline for sales contracts when exporting to China

Contract compliance and effective enforcement of contract rights are on every company’s short list of concerns when doing business in China. In considering the issue of contractual enforcement, focus often tends toward dispute resolution mechanisms, which certainly forms a critical component of a contract. However, effective contract enforcement should be viewed on a broader systematic basis, as part of the overall contractual arrangement and its context. Many problems that foreign companies encounter when doing business in China could have been avoided by carrying out careful due diligence during partner selection and by way of clear, well-drafted and legally workable contracts from the start.