Realidades de negocios

THE MUST DOS IN DOING BUSINESS INTERNATIONALLY:
REALITIES OF CHINA-CHILE TRADE TRANSACTIONS

One of the major setbacks in doing business is the risk of being defrauded. Most often than not, fraud cases are caused by unguided dealings and lack of extensive research of potential business partners, especially in doing transactions internationally.
Being the only Chinese law firm in Santiago, Chile, fraud cases comprised most of the cases that our law firm handled. Sadly, Chinese businessmen – both big and small – are being made victims of their so-called partners from Chile.
One of our cases involves a big Chinese company ABC, importing Durvillaea Antarctica from a Chilean company XYZ. The need for the products is urgent that ABC entered into a Sale Contract involving a huge quantity of products and made payments right away to XYZ. However, not a single piece of product arrived in China and XYZ disappeared and in no way can be contacted.
In doing business, the first thing to do is to research. And this does not include solely researching the market, but as well as researching the background of the potential business partner. It is important to investigate the background of the company and its owner firstly. Verification of the identity of a person introducing himself as the owner/representative/manager of a Company is a must. He needs to prove that he has the authority to enter into Contract. It would also be better if parties involved in the signing of the Contract are juridical persons (companies) for the reason that even though a person authorized to represent the company is already gone, the company can still be held responsible to comply with the obligations of the Contract.
In the case given above, as we were in the process of filing a case against Chilean Company XYZ, records show more than ten (10) fraud cases filed against it and its owner for the last five years. Another fraud case could have been avoided if this information has been known prior to the signing of the contract. In the end, Chinese Company ABC has no other option but to get through the arduous judicial process of Chile.