Practice Strengths

International Trade
At various times, a half-dozen sovereign governments have engaged Baker Hostetler international trade lawyers to work on their behalf to address international trade problems. Baker Hostetler 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, and although there are larger international trade law firms, Baker Hostetler lawyers have helped some of the world's largest corporations solve international trade problems.

The International Trade Practice has been so successful with trade problems that clients frequently return for other services from the group and from other lawyers in the firm. Baker Hostetler has become outside general counsel to a number of companies, foreign and domestic, that came to the firm originally to have a trade dispute resolved.

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 Trade, Customs and Immigration Team 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.

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

Immigration
We assist clients with business immigration issues, including employment of foreign nationals and compliance with employer sanctions and anti-discrimination provisions of immigration law. Our experience enables us to determine which visas are most likely to be approved for a client's needs, where to file the petition and how to present the alien's credentials in the most favorable light. Our multilingual capabilities include Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian and Spanish.

We have successfully negotiated complex immigration agency restrictions in the United States and abroad, including attainment of H-1B visas for professional specialty-occupation workers, L-1 visas for intra-company transferees, E visas for treaty-traders and investors, J visas for foreign exchange visitors, O visas for people of extraordinary ability and P visas for professionals in arts and sports. We also have experience in I-9 compliance and family-sponsored permanent residency petitions.

We have handled hundreds of permanent residence visas (“green cards”) for our clients, including permanent residence petitions based on multinational manager petitions (L-1A visas), permanent residence petitions based on approved labor certification applications (H-1B, L-1B and E visas) and permanent residence petitions based on “national interest” or “outstanding researcher” petitions. Our experience encompasses the “regular” green card process, the reduction in recruitment (“RIR”) process and now the new PERM process.

Leadership in Action

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.

Representative Experience

• Our lawyers have a global reputation for integrity, hard work and excellent results for clients on five continents, having litigated or managed trade disputes in several countries under foreign laws and having practiced in every forum involved with international trade in the United States.
• Our multilingual trade team is skilled in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish and Tagalog.
• Our lawyers are well known and respected in all courts and arbitral tribunals involved in international trade—including the Court of International Trade; the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; NAFTA Binational Panels, and WTO Dispute Resolution Panels.
• Our lawyers are well known and respected in all of the agencies involved in international trade—including: the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services; the Consumer Products Safety Commission; the Customs and Border Protection Bureau; the Departments of Commerce, State, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Justice, Treasury, Defense, Transportation and Labor; the Federal Trade Commission; the Office of Management and Budget; the Office of the United States Trade Representative; the United States International Trade Commission and the White House.
• Our immigration practice—the movement of people complementing the movement of goods and services—typifies Baker Hostetler's approach to meeting client needs, providing immigration assistance to individuals and to some of the world's largest corporations.
• We litigate to win. We settle only on the best possible terms for clients.