NAVIGATING TRANSACTIONAL DISPUTES IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD
For many years, it was in emerging markets where the most lucrative opportunities for deal structuring and dispute resolution arose, along with the greatest demand for international experience and technology. While the languages spoken were often different, the commercial challenges of emerging markets had a number of common themes, be it the former Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries of eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), West Africa or Asia.
This article is too short to explore those themes in detail, although they inform not just deal structuring, but also the way in which disputes are resolved. The international environment is now much more febrile, with states and powerful actors within those states much more open to eschewing international norms of commercial behaviour and thereby undermining the predictability of the resolution of disputes. This new element of risk has made international business in these markets less attractive to western exporters, traditionally the main foreign players in these markets, and this trend has been twinned with the huge success of China as an exporter across these markets, undercutting both western and the traditional Asian exporters from Japan and Korea.
However, China does not just succeed by being cheaper; it is undoubtedly building its soft power through forms of economic imperialism like the Belt and Road Initiative, and export and commercial financing terms which enable it to offer ‘buy now, pay later’ opportunities for developing world economies that are not purely driven by commercial concerns.
Jul-Sep 2023 issue
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP