Elliot J. Feldman
Elliot J. Feldman is the Leader of Baker Hostetler’s international trade practice. He concentrates on all forms of trade remedies affecting the movement of goods and services across international borders. He advises foreign governments, international organizations, American and foreign corporations, and individuals on matters of trade policy and international law and litigates international trade and legal disputes in all relevant forums in the United States and, occasionally, in foreign countries. He has been a frequent legal adviser to the Government of Canada in WTO cases.
Although he has particularly extensive experience in the North American Free Trade Agreement (and founded and is the former Director of the University Consortium for Research on North America at Harvard University), he also represents clients in Europe, Latin America, Australia and Asia, including acting as counsel to the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Feldman is a regular contributor to the practice's China-U.S. Trade Law blog.
Dr. Feldman was the American legal counsel defending the Quebec Government’s trading interests in the United States and elsewhere for the critical first decade of the Canadian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Through an intense period testing the legal apparatus of that agreement, and subsequently the North American Free Trade Agreement, when Quebec’s industrial and social policies were the main target of U.S. complaints, Dr. Feldman prevailed for Quebec repeatedly in trade disputes concerning fresh, chilled, and frozen pork, live swine, apples, alfalfa, beer, softwood lumber, hydroelectric power, and steel wire rod, among others. Dr. Feldman participated as part of Quebec’s negotiating team in international trade negotiations and developed systems to coordinate the interests of the Quebec Government with the Premier’s office and several government ministries. He advised the Australian and Mexican Governments during their negotiations of free trade agreements with the United States.
Dr. Feldman is a former Director of the Canadian-American Business Council and a former Special Project Officer and Consultant in the United States Department of Defense. He has been a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson and Danforth Foundations, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for European Studies and the Center for International Affairs of Harvard University (also as a Member of the Executive Committee) and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He has lectured in the United States, Canada, China and Europe. Dr. Feldman has been listed in the International Who’s Who of Professionals, Marquis Who’s Who in American Law, Madison’s Who’s Who and Chambers Global 2009 The Client’s Guide.
Dr. Feldman has taught at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, the University of British Columbia, Brandeis and Tufts Universities. He is the author of eight books and numerous articles in professional journals, anthologies and the popular press, and is the subject of a Video Leadership Seminar on Strategies in Legal Settings for Multiple Clients with Competing Interests. His Foreign Acquisitions of United States Companies, a treatise for Aspen Publishers being written by a team of Baker Hostetler partners under his direction, is due out in 2010. He is a frequent commentator in the press, on television and radio, including CBC’s “As It Happens,” CKNW’s “The Sean Leslie Show” in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Radio Canada’s “L’Heure des Comptes” and “Phare Ouest.” He is quoted frequently in the Hong Kong and Chinese press as a recognized expert on Chinese affairs related to international trade. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR and Bloomberg News, among others. In 2006, he authored Inside The Minds: International Trade Law Best Practices. He serves on Working Groups at the Council on Foreign Relations concerning the WTO, foreign investment, immigration, and the “Role of the Private Sector in Homeland Security.”
Dr. Feldman has testified five times as an expert witness before the Standing Committee on International Trade of the Canadian House of Commons, on the Softwood Lumber dispute between Canada and the United States, the future of NAFTA and its dispute resolution system, and on the details of legislation pending before the House. His client advice on the Softwood Lumber Agreement has been selected by the Librarian of the Canadian House of Commons as a historic document.
Dr. Feldman is a member of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and American Bar Associations.