Vietnam seeks Shanghai court's assistance

The Pudong New Area People's Court has received its first request for judicial assistance from countries involved in Belt and Road initiative based on a bilateral treaty, the court announced on Wednesday.

The request from Vietnam was handed to the Pudong court's free trade zone branch by the Supreme People's Court and Shanghai Higher People's Court.

The judges found it was a contract dispute between Vietnam-based Vinapack Joint Stock Co and a domestic company being handled by a court in Binh Dinh Province.

Vinapack required to terminate a purchase contract on plastic technology and cancel a letter of credit of US$33,910.

A letter of credit guarantees that a buyer's payment to a seller will be received on time and for the correct amount. In the event the buyer is unable to make a payment on the purchase, the bank will be required to cover the full or remaining amount of the purchase.

Since the Vietnam side was unable to check if the credit letter had already brought money to the Chinese company, the Binh Dinh court entrusted Chinese judicial authorities to tell the Nanyang Commercial Bank, which issued the credit letter, to keep the money and investigate.

China and Vietnam signed a treaty on judicial assistance in civil and criminal cases on October 19, 1998. The free trade zone court carefully reviewed all material the Binh Dinh court provided and determined they complied with the treaty. So the court went to the Nanyang Commercial Bank to give notification and investigation.

Since it was established in 2013, the free trade zone court has accepted more than 1,300 cases related to foreign affairs, involving countries including the US, Canada, Malaysia and Syria.