Courts across the nation will make public juridical results related to maritime and commercial disputes between Chinese and foreigners, in an effort to further improve judicial transparency, the report said.

The measures, revealed during a national conference in Shenzhen Monday on the judgment of maritime and commercial disputes, will guarantee fair and safe trade markets for China, Wan Exiang, vice- president of the Supreme People's Court, was quoted as saying.

The package also includes the standardization of juridical and judgment regulations across the nation, the daily reported.

China's WTO entry will inevitably bring more maritime and commercial disputes with overseas trade partners as they expand their business and cooperation, the daily quoted Wan.

"We should play a big role in the arbitration of these disputes, but we should first be conversant with the rules that every country should abide by in the globalized economy," Wan was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Chinese juridical agencies will continuously expand international exchanges with their foreign counterparts and step up with training among Chinese judges, who should be fully informed of the rules and regulations relating to the WTO, the paper quoted Wan.

Most intermediate people's courts are capable of trying maritime and commercial cases, even though China has established 10 specific maritime courts.

Statistics show that courts across the nation have accepted 63, 000 maritime and commercial cases between Chinese and foreigners since 1978, involving over 100 billion yuan (some 12 billion U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency 10/30/2001)