Almost all major companies today are involved in international business activities or face competition from global sources. Increasingly, midsize firms, too, know that their success requires active participation in the world market. Doing business in the international arena is exciting. It can also be complex and intimidating. It is subject to a large array of domestic statutes and regulations governing exports, imports, international finance, overseas investments and the general conduct of business in or involving foreign jurisdictions. Bryan Cave LLP has long counseled clients in complying with such laws and, when necessary, in dealing with the governmental investigations and enforcement actions that can be a troubling part of the international regulatory landscape.
Areas of Experience
Bryan Cave's International Trade Group offers timely legal advice on the full range of subjects necessary for corporate clients engaged in international business, including:
- Export Controls and Economic Sanctions
- Customs Law
- Antidumping and Countervailing Duty
- Section 337 Intellectual Property Remedies
- Measures to Combat Illicit Trade
- Safeguards and Other Import Remedies
- Technology Transfer and Encryption
- The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
- Asset Blocking and Money Laundering
- International Business Transactions & Outsourcing
- Full-Service Chinese Corporate and Trade Practice
- Regulation of Foreign Investment
- The Antiboycott Regulations
- WTO Matters and Trade Policy
Export Controls and Economic Sanctions
Bryan Cave has one of the leading export control practices among global law firms. The International Trade Group includes lawyers with technical backgrounds who regularly advise clients in the computer, telecommunications, software, aerospace, chemical and pharmaceutical industries on the proper export classification of their products. The group’s export control specialists also advise clients on licensing requirements under the Export Administration Regulations, interpretation of license exceptions, Commerce Department licensing policies, encryption review requests, Wassenaar reporting and compliance with the Foreign Trade Statistics Regulations, International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Drug Enforcement Agency.
The International Trade Group includes lawyers in Europe who advise regularly on compliance with European Union and Member State export controls, conduct global audits, internal investigations and compliance reviews, and provide training programs for companies and their personnel on export compliance.
Customs Law
The International Trade Group has a nationwide and global Customs practice, led by lawyers in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., including a number lawyers formerly at U.S. Customs headquarters. The Firm’s Customs specialists regularly handle Customs audits and focused assessments in industries as diverse as automotive, electronics, semiconductors, aerospace, building materials and consumer products. They represent clients regularly in connection with Customs seizures, Customs enforcement of import relief measures, issues of classification and valuation, the CTPAT program, NAFTA rules, country of origin marking and clearance of imports. The team also defends against Customs actions in the Court of International Trade and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Bryan Cave advises and assists companies in designing Customs import processes that match their compliance and business needs. We draft importer standard operating procedures (SOPs), analyze U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) import data to determine a company’s importing patterns and risk areas, train key company personnel on import compliance and advise companies on how to integrate recommended compliance measures into their business practices.
Through the Firm's trade consulting affiliate, Bryan Cave International Trade LLC ("BCIT"), the International Trade Group also provides Customs advisory services throught offices in China and South East Asia. BCIT personnel include professionals who have served as senior Customs officials in these Asian countries and have decades of experience in their respective Customs systems.
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty
Bryan Cave’s International Trade Group includes lawyers who are former officials of the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) and International Trade Commission (“ITC”) who have represented clients in several major U.S. and foreign antidumping and countervailing duty cases.
Bryan Cave’s lawyers have handled numerous antidumping and countervailing duty cases involving a variety of products and industries and in a number of different countries. Our lawyers have helped represent parties in antidumping proceedings conducted by the administering authorities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Taiwan, the EU, Argentina and Brazil. With experience from the DOC and ITC, we can offer an insider’s perspective on cases. Our lawyers have advised foreign governments in developing and administering their antidumping and countervailing duty mechanisms. We represented Russian producers in the first case in which the European Commission granted market economy status to the Russian Federation.
Section 337 Intellectual Property Remedies
Bryan Cave has specialists in international trade who represent clients in ITC Section 337 intellectual property proceedings against imports. Along with Bryan Cave’s intellectual property lawyers, the Firm has the capability to represent clients in any intellectual property field at the ITC. Section 337 proceedings are rocket-docket proceedings that provide a powerful remedy to IP owners in the U.S. seeking to halt competition from imports that infringe U.S. patents, trademarks or copyrights. The ITC has authority to issue cease and desist orders halting any further U.S. sales or sales-related activity of infringing products and to issue exclusion orders that direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prohibit any importation at the border of any infringing product. Section 337 also provides relief against any unfair act in import trade, including actions involving misappropriation of trade secrets, common law trademark and trade dress, misrepresentation as to source, antitrust violations and other similar actions.
Measures to Combat Illicit Trade
Bryan Cave has assisted global manufacturers in investigation and formulating effective responses to illicit trade, including both measures to combat the flow of counterfeit and grey market goods as well as diversion of goods to unauthorized destinations. In South East Asia and China, BCIT’s Customs specialists have assisted brand owners in collecting information on the manufacture, import and transshipment of counterfeit goods. This evidence of illicit activities has enabled owners of a number of leading global brands to take effective measures to protect their brands, identify the weak links in their supply chains and take appropriate action against illicit traders.
Safeguards and Other Import Remedies
Lawyers at Bryan Cave have significant experience in ITC general safeguards investigations (“Section 201”), special safeguards investigations against China (“Section 421”), Section 301 investigations conducted by USTR and NAFTA Chapter 8 Anti-Surge investigations. Our lawyers have been actively involved in almost all ITC Section 201 safeguards investigations conducted in the past 10 years and have been active in other safeguard-related proceedings at the ITC and USTR. Our lawyers also have handled Section 421 safeguards investigations against China, a Section 301 matter against Ukraine and a NAFTA Chapter 8 Anti-Surge investigation on line-pipe from Mexico.
Technology Transfer and Encryption
Companies establishing operations outside the United States such as manufacturers seeking to take advantage of lower-cost sources of supply, face distinct issues of export compliance. The International Trade Group includes lawyers experienced in advising companies with respect to the transfer of U.S.-origin software and technology to foreign locations. This includes experience in the regulation of independent software development outside the United States and the opening of service centers in countries like India and China.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Bryan Cave’s FCPA practice includes internal investigations of questionable payments and defense of charges as well as compliance advice, implementation of compliance programs and training of personnel. The Firm has handled major investigations in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East in a wide range of industry segments.
Asset Blocking and Money Laundering
The International Trade group’s practice includes advising the U.S. financial industry on compliance with blocking orders and anti-moneylaundering measures.
Recognizing the extraordinary risks facing financial institutions and other corporations, Bryan Cave has assembled an interdisciplinary team of lawyers and other professionals with particular knowledge of the Money Laundering Control Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and the highly technical aspects of the BSA and OFAC programs.
International Business Expansion and Outsourcing
Members of the Firm’s International Trade Group represent private equity funds and corporate clients investing and operating in Europe, Asia and Latin America. We also represent non-U.S. clients with transactional, regulatory and dispute resolution matters in the United States. Our corporate clients come from a broad range of industries, from semiconductor technology, pharmaceuticals, software development, advertising services and automotive to construction and building products. We also advise multinational financial institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia on international banking and financial regulations affecting their operations.. Many of our lawyers are fluent in foreign languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese and German, and the group draws upon other Bryan Cave lawyers fluent in a variety of other languages in our network to assist our clients globally.
Full-Service Chinese Corporate and Trade Practice
Bryan Cave operates in China both under its own license and in affiliated offices in Beijing and Guangzhou of Alpha & Leader, a Chinese law firm in the corporate and finance sectors. This allows us to offer local law services to our clients.
The affiliated firms together provide offices in Guangzhou, where Alpha & Leader has its headquarters, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, with 80 Chinese lawyers and 40 additional professionals across China. These lawyers advise many of China’s top domestic banks, as well as U.S. commercial and investment banks and multinational corporations. The firms’ practice areas include financial, transactional and corporate services, risk and asset management, and litigation and arbitration. The lawyers in the affiliation have received top ratings and recognition from the Legal 500 and Chinese lawyers’ associations.
The alliance allows Bryan Cave to offer current and future clients an integrated capacity in China that only an affiliation with a local firm can provide and enables the network of affiliated lawyers to better handle corporate, finance, real estate, transactional and international trade matters in China and across the globe.
Regulation of Foreign Investment
Through the Firm’s trade consulting affiliate, BCIT, the International Trade Group provides clients with trade intelligence in South East Asia and China. BCIT includes trade specialists who have decades of experience in trade issues in the region, some of whom were involved in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations during their time within the government. The regulatory environment in the region is constantly evolving, and it is important for companies to monitor and understand how these changes affect their businesses. With BCIT’s local network in the region, Bryan Cave is able to track and analyze local investment, trade and Customs developments closely. These services can be tailored to meet the individual requirements of Bryan Cave’s clients and to ensure the continued relevance of the information.
Bryan Cave’s broad trade advisory capability in South East Asia and China further allows the group to offer strategic and operational advice to clients. This includes advice on both local investment schemes and specific advice on the practical aspects of the implementation of the various bilateral and regional free trade agreements such as the ASEAN Free Trade Area (“AFTA”) and the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (“ACFTA”).
The Antiboycott Regulations
Bryan Cave was one of the first U.S. law firms to open an office in the Middle East over 25 years ago. Companies operating in that part of the world face the added burden of ensuring compliance with the complex antiboycott regulations administered by the U.S. Commerce Department aimed at ensuring that U.S. parties do not aid the Arab League boycott of Israel. Several of the lawyers in the International Trade Group in the United States and United Kingdom advise clients regularly on antiboycott issues and provide antiboycott compliance training to multinational companies. The group’s lawyers have also defended a number of the largest antiboycott enforcement cases ever brought by the U.S. government.
WTO, Regional Trade and Trade Policy Matters
The International Trade Group, including the Firm’s trade consulting affiliate BCIT, has legal and non-legal professionals who specialize in advising clients in automotive, agricultural, consumer products, telecommunications, express delivery, distribution, financial and other industries on compliance and non-compliance with WTO obligations of the United States and foreign countries. In addition, our staff closely monitors U.S. Section 301 enforcement actions, Congressional consideration of FTAs, trade-related legislation and U.S. trade policy developments.