On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Two days later, the WHO stated that Europe showed more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China. Italy now has more reported deaths from COVID-19 than China and, as COVID-19 continues to spread, governments across the globe are implementing ever stricter measures in an attempt to contain or delay the spread of the disease. Those measures are causing significant disruption to seaborne trade.

Reed Smith is fielding a substantial number of enquiries relating to COVID-19. In this briefing, we set out some guidance on the most common issues we are seeing.

To read more please see our client alert here.