The Grain and Feed Trade Association（GAFTA）
Headquartered in London, GAFTA is an international trade association which can trace its origins back to 1878. It focuses on promoting international trade in grain and animal feed, and protecting the interests of global members throughout the trade. GAFTA has currently 1400 Members in 86 countries worldwide with the membership categories covering traders, brokers, superintendents, arbitrators, etc. from all sectors of the grain and feed industry.
With more than a hundred years of experience, GAFTA has developed a set of comprehensive trade security system, including an arbitration mechanism to resolve trade disputes. As a matter of fact, the majority of world trade in grain, feed and some kind of pulse is usually directly or indirectly affected by GAFTA standard contracts, it is therefore requisite, reasonable and commonly-seen that clients choose GAFTA arbitration mechanism in order to protect their legitimate interests involved in grain and feed trade disputes.
As decided by the professional nature of the industry which requires rich experience in international arbitration, Harvest Sight Law Firm's international soft commodity arbitration/non-arbitration team has been and is currently working for grain and feed importers, traders, producers and processors in China by advising on operational decision-making and strategy and acting for clients in international arbitration in GAFTA industry, so as to provide professional, safe and efficient special legal services to clients in this industry.
The Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats Associations Ltd (FOSFA)
FOSFA was formed in 1971 by the merger of 4 previous associations (the oldest of which dates back to 1863). Headquartered in London, FOSFA is an important international trade association aiming to promote the world trade in oils, oilseeds (including soybeans, sunflower seeds, rapeseed, peanuts and others) and fats, and provides relevant services for commerce and trade in this industry. Since its development, FOSFA has more than 700 Members in 67 countries worldwide, most of them are producers, processors, transporters, distributors, traders, brokers and agents in the industry of oils, oilseeds and fats, as well as relevant management departments, analysts, shipowners and others who provide services to traders.
A series of standard forms of contracts issued by FOSFA plays an exemplary role to the world trade in oils, oilseeds and fats, and the relevant trade in this industry worldwide is directly or indirectly affected by FOSFA standard contracts. The arbitration mechanism of FOSFA is favored by most companies in this industry in order to better solve their disputes in such trade. Even for Non-Members, FOSFA arbitration is applicable as well, through which trade-related contracts and conducts will be given the most authoritative interpretation and adjudication.
As decided by the professional nature of the industry which requires rich experience in international arbitration, Harvest Sight Law Firm's international soft commodity arbitration/non-arbitration team has been and is currently working for importers, processors, transporters, traders, brokers and agents in the industry of oils, oilseeds and fats by advising on operational decision-making and strategy at all stages and acting for clients in international arbitration in FOSFA industry, so as to provide professional, safe and efficient special legal services to clients in this industry.
The Sugar Association of London（SAL）and the Refined Sugar Association（RSA）
Founded in London in 1882, SAL is the world's most important trade association for the international raw sugar trade, which aims to set up Contract Rules providing contract terms for the international raw sugar trade. Founded in London in 1891, RSA provides generally applicable Contracts and Rules for the refined sugar trade in international markets. Currently, SAL has 71 Full Members and 59 Affiliate Members worldwide, and RSA has 77 Full Members and 18 Affiliate Members worldwide.
Since their establishment, SAL and RSA have positioned their function in standardizing international raw sugar and refined sugar transactions and in providing high-quality arbitration services for disputes arisen from international raw sugar and refined sugar transactions. So far, they have formed a highly mature arbitration system, and such dispute resolution services are available for both Members and Non-Members, which are widely acclaimed in the industry.
As decided by the professional nature of the industry which requires rich experience in international arbitration, Harvest Sight Law Firm's international soft commodity arbitration/non-arbitration team has been and is currently working for sugar importers, processors, transporters, traders and brokers by advising on operational decision-making and strategy at all stages and acting for clients in international arbitration in SAL and RSA industry, so as to provide professional, safe and efficient special legal services to clients in this industry.
London Metal Exchange（LME）
Founded in 1876 and headquartered in London, LME is the world's largest non-ferrous metals exchange as well as the price discovery institution for non-ferrous metals. LME's metal price and inventory have an important impact on the worldwide production and sales of non-ferrous metals. The official daily metal price published by LME is used as the benchmark and basis for pricing physical metal contracts in the industry. LME provides metal futures and options trading, giving customers from all stages of the metal supply chain the opportunity to hedge against price risk and to avoid the adverse effects of price volatility. Currently, LME's trading volume accounts for about 80% of the global non-ferrous metals exchange. Its three-month forward contract price is used by a large number of international metal trading contracts every single day,which has become an international metal trading practice. Such achievement depends on a complete set of industrial operation mechanism and institutional guarantee. LME’s trading system which integrates futures and physical goods ensures that its price can be extensively applicable in the physical market, and its wide-spread warehouse network becomes the closest connection with the physical market. At the same time, LME's arbitration mechanism can resolve international metal trade disputes in a fair, professional and economic way, which is widely acclaimed in the industry.
As decided by the professional nature of the industry which requires extraordinary experience in this field, Harvest Sight Law Firm's international hard commodity arbitration/non-arbitration team together with our English law expert team has been and is currently working for Ring Dealers (Category One Member), futures dealers, physical goods traders, etc. by advising on operational decision-making and strategy at all stages.The main work of our team includes but is not limited to:
A. Advising on regulatory matters such as transaction reporting, capital requirements, market conduct, settlement and clearing, treatment of client money, payment for order flow and reverse solicitation；
B. MiFID pre-trade transparency；set-off and netting；anti-money laundering precautions；
C. Business sale and acquisitions；acting for clients in international arbitration over disputed trades, non-payment etc.in LME industry；
D. Disciplinary or regulatory issues with LME and FCA.
Harvest Sight’s team has been and is currently providing professional, safe and efficient special legal services to clients in this industry.
