International Trade - Brussels
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Our international trade experience includes:
Antidumping Proceedings
The Firm’s Brussels Office has represented exporters and importers in more than 100 EU anti-dumping cases since the late 70s involving products from Japan, India, China, North and South America and elsewhere around the world.
Countervailing Duty Proceedings
Our Brussels lawyers have represented Indian exporters in EU countervailing proceedings involving PET film, PET chips, micro-diskettes and recordable CDs, and in an anti-circumvention case involving also PET film.
Safeguard Proceedings
Our lawyers in Brussels have the experience to represent exporters or petitioners in safeguard proceedings brought by the European Commission. This experience is complemented by that of the Washington DC practice where McDermott Will & Emery has represented clients in US industry-wide investigations on such products as motorcycles, footwear and steel.
Trade Barriers and Market Access
The Trade Barriers Regulation (EC) No 3286/94 gives any EU industry, association or enterprise the possibility of petitioning the European Commission to open an investigation into trade barriers existing in third countries. Where it is found that barriers to trade are causing injury or adverse trade effects in violation of an international trade agreement, the EU may retaliate by adopting commercial policy measures that are consistent with international obligations and procedures, notably the withdrawal of concessions, the raising of tariffs or the imposition of quotas. Our Brussels Office is experienced in such proceedings and is currently advising one of the parties in the proceedings concerning access for EU pharmaceuticals to the Turkish market.
Export Controls & Sanctions
The trade practice in Brussels advises on EU trade sanctions, the export of dual-use goods, and dealing with persons linked to terrorist organisations.
International Trade Agreements and WTO
From Brussels we have advised clients and governments in relation to the Mercosur Agreement, the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences, the Europe Agreements with accession candidate countries, Partnership and Cooperation Agreements with CIS countries, and the EU-Turkey Association Agreement.
Customs
In the EU our lawyers in Brussels have advised importers in relation to customs classification and has obtained binding tariff information (BTI) from national customs authorities. The Brussels office has advised Asian exporters in relation to the EU Generalised system of preferences, the structuring of production in order to benefit from preferential origin under regional cumulation rules, and also in relation to “first sale” valuation and the inter-relation with EU VAT rules and procedures. We have advised clients in EU customs investigations carried out by the EU Fraud Office (“OLAF”) and on the procedural and substantive issues of post-clearance recovery of duties. We have obtained duty suspensions on behalf of the importing industry, and also advised on a broad range of regulatory issues which arise for importers, such as temporary import regimes, inward and outward processing, “CE” marking, product authorisation, labelling, etc.
We advise our clients on the customs, state aid and regulatory issues arising out of enlargement of the EU in 1986, 1995 and 2004 as well as proposed future enlargements. The complex interplay of countervailing, anti-dumping, and circumvention proceedings, and more restrictive preferential tariff treatment has given rise to an increase in our services in Brussels of advising multinational exporters on the structuring of their businesses so as to mitigate the impact of EU trade defence measures and tariffs.
Trade Litigation
The Brussels Office provides clients with representation before the European Court of Justice/Court of First Instance in judicial appeals against anti-dumping and countervailing determinations. Some of our Brussels lawyers have also assisted the EU Council and the European Commission Legal Services in defending court challenges to anti-dumping determinations and opposing exporters’ requests for interim suspension of anti-dumping measures.
Contacts
- Philip Bentley QC
+32 2 282 35 27
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