The China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) has announced the relocation of its South China and Shanghai offices (see China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission Secretariat South China Office, Shanghai Office Relocation Announcement. The new addresses have been added to our Practice notes, A guide to the CIETAC Arbitration Rules (2012) and A guide to the CIETAC Arbitration Rules (2005).

As previously reported, the introduction of the CIETAC Arbitration Rules in May 2012 resulted in an open dispute, and then a split, between the CIETAC Beijing headquarters and the Shanghai and South China sub-commissions (see Legal update, CIETAC Shanghai and CIETAC South China sub-commissions split from CIETAC Beijing). Those sub-commissions subsequently declared themselves independent arbitral institutions with separate arbitration rules and are now re-named as the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) and the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (SHIAC) (see Legal update, CIETAC Shanghai Commission and SCIA issue joint announcement). CIETAC subsequently re-instated new Shanghai and South China offices.

This latest announcement from CIETAC also states that its South China and Shanghai offices will accept cases where parties agree to submit their disputes to:

However, SHIAC has also indicated it will continue to accept disputes where parties have agreed to arbitrate through CIETAC Shanghai. As such, there is still considerable uncertainty surrounding CIETAC clauses that fail to specify Beijing as the seat, or that provide for CIETAC Shanghai or South China.

Source: China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission Secretariat South China Office, Shanghai Office Relocation Announcement.