Although the ongoing Middle East conflict continues to impact international commerce in various ways, the ICC has issued a statement that developments arising from the conflict do not alter application of ICC rules governing documentary trade instruments.
In its April 2026 statement, ICC referenced past extraordinary events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Icelandic volcano eruption of 2010 which posed practical challenges for the document presentation and examination process. As with these events, ICC suggested that coping with the current Middle East conflict’s affect on banking operations or document presentation under ICC rules should prompt the industry to keep certain provisions in mind.
1) ICC rules, such as UCP 600 Article 35, URDG 758 Article 28(a) and URC 522 Article 14(a), already address situations where documents are delayed or lost in transit between banks and exempt banks from liability for the consequences arising therefrom.
2) ICC rules contain force majeure provisions that apply where the operations of a bank are interrupted by events beyond its control.
3) Where practical disruptions affect the document presentation or examination process, parties to a transaction may mutually decide on alternative arrangements such as use of scanned or electronic copies or other agreed methods of presentation to overcome.
4) Where parties choose to agree on electronic presentation, they may consider referring to the eUCP or eURC supplements, which provide additional rules governing electronic records when expressly incorporated into the instrument, or URDG which already contains rules for electronic documents for guarantees subject to it.
The full two-page guidance document is available here from ICC.
