PRACTICE AREAS

Based in our Washington, D.C. office, Hughes Hubbard’s International Trade and Customs Practice is a full-service trade team that covers the entire range of international trade regulatory issues, on both the inbound and outbound side of transactions.  Our Practice is made up of leading, internationally recognized practitioners with many years of senior government service and private practice experience.  Specifically, our team includes a former Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement (Partner), a former U.S. Senate staffer (Partner), two Counsel with over a decade of combined experience in the Department of Commerce General Counsel’s Office responsible for all antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, and a former member of the Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser who counseled on the negotiation, interpretation, and implementation of international trade agreements (Associate).  Our core International Trade and Customs Practice group consists of over a dozen lawyers (including six senior trade attorneys, each of whom has led major investigations), complemented by dedicated analysts and paralegals, all concentrated in international trade matters.  Our Partners are recognized as leading international trade lawyers in Chambers USA, Chambers Global, and other prominent international rankings of trade attorneys such as The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers (Trade & Customs).

Hughes Hubbard’s international trade professionals offer in-depth and broad-spectrum analyses of trade issues on an extremely efficient basis to a diverse group of clients, including national governments and their entities, manufacturers, exporters, importers, trade associations, and end users.  Representative industries in which we have significant experience include:

• Aerospace
• Agri-business
• Auto and Auto Parts
• Aviation
• Cattle
• Chemicals
• Computers
• Consumer Goods
• Dairy
• Defense
• Energy
• Electrical
• Electronics
• Financial and Accounting Services
• Freight Forwarding
• General Manufacturing
• Information Technology and Security (including Encryption)
• Metals
• Minerals
• Oil and Gas
• Rice
• Satellite
• Shrimp
• Softwood Lumber
• Steel
• Telecommunications
• Textiles and Apparel

Our team is multicultural and multilingual, allowing us to have a truly global reach and provide a broad range of services in various jurisdictions both at home and abroad.  We have handled significant international trade matters involving over 25 countries around the world.  The firm’s international reach is facilitated by close coordination between the lawyers in our Tokyo, Paris, Miami, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and New York offices.

With respect to outbound trade, our attorneys routinely assist clients in navigating all export issues administered by the Departments of State, Commerce and Treasury, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and multilateral regimes.  We also advise multinational, U.S., and non-U.S. firms on the potential implications for their global business activities arising from the extraterritorial aspects of U.S. export controls, economic sanctions and trade embargoes, and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

On the inbound side, we handle the full range of U.S. international trade actions, such as antidumping and countervailing duty, safeguards, Section 301, customs, and GSP investigations.  Our attorneys have been lead defense counsel in dozens of high-profile U.S. trade investigations for clients in Japan, Mexico, Canada, Thailand, the European Community, Indonesia, South Africa, India, South Korea, Brazil, and Vietnam, as well as in trade investigations by other countries, all spanning a wide range of industries.  The trade laws can be a business tool or weapon for our clients, and we have handled both sides, allowing us to see all aspects of a case to better serve our clients.  Our customs practice is broad and deep, and we represent a wide range of clients.

Our trade specialties include:

• U.S. Export and Re-export Controls
• Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings
• U.S. Customs Law Issues
• U.S. Trade Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
• Antiboycott Rules
• U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and OECD Antibribery Convention
• Section 301 Proceedings
• NAFTA and WTO Agreement and Dispute Resolution
• Other U.S. Trade Remedies (Safeguards, Section 337)
• International Government Procurement under WTO Rules

As more and more areas formerly subject only to domestic laws become the subject of multilateral trade law disciplines, we are uniquely situated to advise clients on the internationalization of the rules that govern their business.  When necessary, we also draw upon Hughes Hubbard’s experts in related areas that increasingly interconnect with international trade rules, including international corporate transactions and financing, tax, intellectual property, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, CFIUS, arbitration and litigation, telecommunications, and environmental law, as well as the firm’s vibrant Europe, Latin America, and Pacific Basin practices.