At first, it seems paradoxical: how can a party know what it will accept in the future if it does not know what it is prepared to do now? However, some trade agreements contain elements that should be negotiated at a later date. In particular, price and logistics clauses cannot be agreed immediately and require additional time to negotiate. Some common agreements, which can be considered agreements to be concluded, are directors of agreements or declarations of intent. It is generally said that the agreements to be agreed are unenforceable. However, the courts have always held that this is an oversimplification. On the contrary, an enforceable contract is concluded as soon as the parties have agreed on all the essential conditions – even if they “officially” only “officially” execute a formal document containing these essential conditions. It is not necessarily the signing of a document that constitutes a treaty, but the fact that an agreement has been reached. However, the courts will take note if the parties have indicated that they do not intend to be in a binding contract until a particular document has been executed. Regardless of the above, it is common for the parties – particularly the parties to trade – to prolong negotiations before entering into a contract.
These negotiations may even relate to documents exchanged or signed. For example, statements of intent, declarations of intent or communications in which the parties agree to make comparisons in a process context. But when can these “agreement agreements” be implemented? There are several important takeaways for anyone who wants to make sure their approval is enforceable in the future. Therefore, remember that during the appeal process, the Court of Appeal accepted the High Court and found that “for an additional period of time, there must be another agreement between the parties” since this had been agreed within the OSG. Accordingly, both parties were free to agree or argue over the duration of an extension, if any, without the duty to negotiate in good faith or to disable their own business interests (provided that the underlying contract did not indicate the opposite of what it did not).3 The term was the “very paradigm” of an unenforceable agreement. to give its consent.