China joins the Apostille Convention

China joins the Apostille Convention

China joins the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, that will simplify doing business with China significantly.

For China, the Apostille Convention will enter into force on November 7, 2023.

 

Emergency laws passed

The beginning of the year was marked by the adoption of three emergency laws as a "response to existing threats to the national interests of the Republic of Belarus in the regime of special restrictive measures":

Law “On seizure of property”;

Law “On issues concerning transfer under temporary external control”;

Law “On the limitation of exclusive rights to intellectual property objects”.

Effective January 17, 2023.

Practice from Borovtsov & Salei on foreign trade contracts

On December 22, 2022, partner Znak Nadezhda took part in online seminar on the topic “Currency agreement and non-monetary termination of obligations under foreign trade agreement”.

The speech paid attention to practical difficulties in concluding and executing foreign trade contracts, explained the differences and cases of assignment of a claim, transfer of debt, execution by a third party and execution in favor of a third party.

 

How to choose legal form of doing business

Article of Borovtsov & Salei: How to choose optimal organizational and legal form of doing business, taking into account specifics of Belarusian legislation. For comparison, the most common forms of doing business are closed joint-stock company (CJSC), limited liability company (LLC), private unitary enterprise (PUE).

Choice of optimal form of doing business is indispensably related to effectiveness of its activities and should be based on comprehensive assessment of systematically processed advantages and disadvantages of each of the forms.

Prohibition of reorganization

On October 31, 2022 Decree of the President of Belarus No. 386 was signed. It established additional restrictions in relation to actions of legal entities (their participants), included in the list of legal entities of the Republic of Belarus, participants (shareholders) of which are persons from "unfriendly" countries. Such a list was previously approved by the Government.