Practice Strengths

Baker Hostetler represents foreign and domestic companies, associations and governments from every continent in all manner of international trade, customs and immigration proceedings before U.S. and foreign regulatory agencies, courts and international dispute resolution panels, especially NAFTA. We advise governments, private enterprises and associations in international trade negotiations. Our attorneys also participate in and advise foreign governments in World Trade Organization proceedings.

Attorneys in the Washington office represent clients in antidumping, countervailing duty and other investigative proceedings before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission; Section 201 safeguard actions involving 11 federal agencies and the White House; and Section 201 actions before the U.S. Trade Representative. They also represent clients in customs, immigration, export controls and economic sanctions matters before the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, State and Defense.

Visit our China-U.S. Trade Law blog for the latest information and insight on active trade disputes.

Customs and Export Controls 
Attorneys in the Houston office, as well as in the Washington office, represent and advise companies in connection with import and export matters. They give particular emphasis to customs and trade issues arising from multinational manufacturing operations. Our Houston attorneys have extensive experience in assisting companies as they assess and strengthen their procedures for complying with export control, antiboycott, economic sanctions and related regulatory regimes.

Baker Hostetler advises companies on the laws, rules and regulations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State and the Treasury pertaining to customs, export controls and embargoes. 

Immigration
Globalization frequently requires companies to move personnel across international borders. Baker Hostetler provides comprehensive immigration services to businesses, especially those with complex requirements to fulfill their executive and personnel needs.

Baker Hostetler International Trade, Customs and Immigration attorneys frequently join with other practice specialties to provide clients with the most effective and efficient service. Such comprehensive international capabilities are rare within a single law firm. Baker Hostetler's practices are further distinguished by imagination and creativity. Clients frequently call upon Baker Hostetler to solve the most complex and challenging problems. 

International Trade: Import Relief

Shaping import relief for a client's special needs

Client: Manildra Milling Corporation

Type of Matter: International Trade

Our Client's Challenge: To stop a surge in European exports to the United States while maintaining or increasing Australian exports, under a legal regime that requires all foreign exporters to be treated the same way.

The Goal: A safeguard measure, requiring a proclamation of the President of the United States, that would restrict European exports of wheat gluten while maintaining or increasing Australian exports.

Our Strategy: We forged alliances with all U.S. producers. We then invoked a then-dormant provision of the trade law and argued it through the many layers of government required to get action. We petitioned the International Trade Commission, briefed and argued through two rounds of hearings. We lobbied Congress. We made presentations to the participants in the Trade Policy Staff Committee, and then the Trade Policy Committee itself, chaired by the United States Trade Representative and including the Departments of State, Commerce, Labor, Treasury, and Agriculture, and the Office of Management and Budget. We made presentations to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the National Economics Council, and White House staff.

Results: Three presidential proclamations, in each of three years, restricting European imports based on a “representative period” that pre- dated the surge and that confirmed Australian levels that were superior to the levels at the time we initiated the action. Manildra Milling enjoyed four years of improved market access and reduced unfair European competition.

At various times, a half-dozen sovereign governments have engaged Baker Hostetler international trade lawyers to solve their problems. Baker Hostetler's attorneys handled all international matters in the United States for the Gouvernement du Québec for a decade, achieving unparalleled dismissals of subsidy claims during the most demanding years inaugurating the Free Trade Agreement Between Canada and the United States, as well as NAFTA. Those lawyers defeated claims against more than two dozen government programs in nearly a dozen different government agencies. Similar favorable outcomes have been achieved for other foreign governments and for many international enterprises.

Many commercial and individual parties and trade associations from all over the world have called upon Baker Hostetler's creative services, and the firm has helped enterprises large and small. The focus is on quality and service, not size or prestige, although Baker Hostetler lawyers have helped some of the world's largest corporations with international trade problems.

Although the Baker Hostetler International Trade Practice displays a decided tilt toward free trade and imported goods and services, it is also experienced in assisting domestic companies and associations combating unfair trade, whether in a surge of low-priced wheat gluten, steel tubes restricted by the Steel 201 safeguard, cemented carbide tools and dies, lawn and garden steel fence posts, or even sparklers. Such assistance has been provided under Sections 201 and 332, and in countervailing duty and antidumping cases. The team will help U.S. companies and associations whenever trade, pretending to be free, is clearly not fair.

Our International Trade Practice boasts of having litigated a full course meal—on behalf of imports of wheat gluten (essential for bread) under Section 201, beer (under Section 301), pork (countervailing duties), apples (Section 332), and a variety of other agricultural products including alfalfa, UHT milk and live swine (under various trade provisions). The team has been equally effective in market and non-market economies.

In addition, the team has defended imports in a full range of industrial and other products, including Canada's softwood lumber, pure and alloy magnesium from Canada, various steel products from several countries, Mexican cement, nitrocellulose from Japan, fuel ethanol from Brazil, steel from South Africa, manganese sulfate from China, oscillating and ceiling fans from China and cigarette lighters from China. The team has won significant victories assuring the trade flow of all these products.