The harmonization of international standards is crucial if countries and food processors are to benefit from globalization. The harmonization of standards, specifications and regulations is crucial for international trade. Harmonization allows companies to understand the regulatory requirements and minimum requirements of customers in international markets. This, in turn, allows companies to produce goods for these markets. A number of public, private and governmental organizations are involved in harmonizing standards. The main objective of these efforts is to reduce barriers to trade and thus increase the free movement of food between countries. These efforts bring financial benefits to companies that take advantage of new markets and to countries that benefit from an increase in their gross domestic product. One suggestion that emerged from the Action Plan and the ensuing discussion was the creation of a Common Frame of Reference (CFR), which would contain common principles, definitions and model rules for European contract law. The European Commission has mandated an international academic network (Joint Network on European Private Law, also known as the CoPECL Network of Excellence) to create the CFR. In 2009, the European Common Network of Private Law published the final version of the “Draft Common Framework of Reference (DCFR) for European Private Law. The DCFR had three objectives: “First, to improve the coherence of European contract law, known as the acquis.
Secondly, to help Member States develop their own contract law. And thirdly, to serve as the basis for a non-sectoral “voluntary instrument”. [9] ICC Model Contracts and Clauses. ICC also develops model contracts and clauses to facilitate international trade. Private companies engaged in international trade are free to choose between these proposed contracts and clauses that cover a range of areas, including agency, arbitration, confidentiality, force majeure, franchising, mergers and acquisitions, and more. ICC also provides dispute resolution services, including an “arbitral tribunal” that assists in resolving international commercial and commercial disputes that may or may not arise from the use of ICC standard contracts, clauses or other harmonization instruments. Although harmonisation has been considerable, the main way to deal with cross-border institutions is cooperation, and it should remain so. In a world of collaboration, it is difficult to overcome the expectation that each authority will put its own interests first under pressure. It is instructive to note that, although the United States has considerable cooperation between regulators, it has chosen a particular authority responsible at the national (federal) level to overcome the contradictions that may affect states. However, the existence of several agencies at the federal level – the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and even the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – suggests that choosing the national level alone is not the answer. Some of the harmonization instruments relating to international trade law deriving from IDRLs (in order of completion date) include: In 2010, a group of academics from Argentina, Colombia and Chile met in Rennes, France, to participate in a conference on the development of French and Latin American contract law. The group began to consider harmonization projects and eventually received support from the Fundación Fernando Fueyo of the Diego Portales University in Chile and the Foundation for Continental Law. After a few years, the academic initiative gave birth to an important instrument of harmonization, the principles of Latin American contract law.
UNIDROIT Principles relating to International Trade Agreements. The original version of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UPICC or PICC) was finalized in 1994 (UNIDROIT Principles 1994) by an international working group of academic lawyers who undertook to draft a non-binding reformulation of the general principles of international commercial contract law. Since then, the UICCC has been amended three times: in 2004 (UNIDROIT Principles 2004), 2010 (UNIDROIT Principles 2010) and 2016 (UNIDROIT Principles 2016). The UNIDROIT Principles 2016 are the current version. More recently, the UNIDROIT Secretariat published a note on the UPICC related to the COVID-19 health crisis, but stated that the note had simply contributed to the public debate without changing the current version of the UPICC. The UNIDROIT website contains links to the preparatory work for each version of the UPICC and provides a selection of bibliographies for the 2010 and 2016 versions. In addition, the UNILEX database provides access to court decisions, arbitral awards and secondary sources that interpret and apply the UPICC. UNILEX offers countless ways to search its database, including UPICC item number, legal issue, subject, nationality of parties, date of proceedings, name of court, etc.
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), 1489 U.N.T.S. 3, 19 I.L.M. 671, was opened for signature on 11 April 1980 and entered into force on 1 January 1988. It is arguably the most effective harmonization instrument in international trade law. There are currently 94 countries that have ratified, accepted, approved or acceded to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, including the United States and most Western European countries (the United Kingdom and India are notable opponents). Since it is a binding contract in all countries that have accepted it, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods serves as standard law in cross-border commercial transactions; However, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods grants private trading partners the freedom to reject the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods in whole or in part by including contractual language that excludes or modifies the application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods to their cross-border transactions. The UNCITRAL website contains the text of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods as well as an explanatory note, a situation chart, links to preparatory documents, links to related conventions (some of which are listed below) and links to the UNCITRAL database and compendium of texts to find judicial and arbitral decisions interpreting and applying the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. In addition, the UNILEX database provides access to court decisions, arbitral awards and secondary sources that interpret and apply the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. UNILEX offers countless ways to search its database, including CISG article number, legal question or question, date of case, etc. For more research resources on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, check out GlobaLex`s International Commercial Contracts Research Guide, which focuses on contracts for the cross-border sale of goods.