International Trade: Trade Remedies and Trade Policy

Overview

“When you go into trade disputes that are complicated and messy, having a team like BakerHostetler, that has the core understanding of your operations, gives you a sense of confidence.”

– Chambers USA 2020

BakerHostetler’s International Trade Remedies and Trade Policy team represents U.S. importers, foreign manufacturers, trade associations and foreign governments in legal proceedings regarding:

  • Tariffs on imported goods, including anti-dumping and countervailing (anti-subsidy) duties.
  • Safeguards (Section 201 investigations).
  • National security tariffs (Section 232 investigations).
  • Tariffs for unfair trade practices (Section 301 investigations).
  • Customs enforcement proceedings.
  • Market access and other trade policy issues under bilateral, regional, and multilateral agreements.

We represent clients in international trade disputes before the World Trade Organization (WTO); government agencies including the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. International Trade Commission and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); the U.S. Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; binational panels under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement; and other dispute resolution bodies.

Our International Trade Remedies and Trade Policy team is comprised of attorneys who are recognized as strategic, unconventional problem-solvers providing trade policy advice to CEOs and senior government officials and counseling clients on strategies for mitigating the risk of trade remedy tariffs and other non-tariff barriers. Our team includes lawyers with many years of experience in government offices responsible for developing, executing and enforcing international trade policies.  Over the past 20 years, we have handled some of the highest-profile international law and international trade matters with respect to trade remedies, customs issues and other government regulations on international trade, and have won significant victories assuring the trade flow of our clients’ products.

We have defended agricultural imports for a full-course meal, including pork, beer, alfalfa and apples. We have defended a full range of forest policies and forest products, including lumber, wood moldings, newsprint and supercalendered paper. We have defended green energy products – wind towers and solar panels – and industrial products from a variety of countries, including pure and alloy magnesium from Canada, cement from Mexico, nitrocellulose from Japan, fuel ethanol from Brazil, drains and drill pipe from China, and mobile cranes from Austria, Germany, Japan and China.

Our attorneys have in-depth experience with a diverse number of issues impacting international trade and investment, including agricultural and industrial market access, customs, digital trade, climate change and environmental policy, import licensing, intellectual property, labor rights, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, subsidy programs, supply chain resiliency, technical regulations, and U.S. trade preference programs (GSP, AGOA, CBI). In addition to our deep knowledge of U.S.-Canadian trade relations, we also offer expertise in the Southeast Asia, including extensive contacts in governments throughout the region.  Our team members speak fluent Chinese, French, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The strength of our International Trade Remedies and Trade Policy team is enhanced by our extensive network of carefully chosen international independent law firms that share our strengths and quality standards and with which we have strong and long-standing relationships. We are adept at coordinating multijurisdictional teams, drawing on these international law firm relationships where necessary, to manage our clients’ needs around the world. We combine our lawyers’ experience with that of the most appropriate international law firm as needed, enabling us to provide our clients with advice from the best-equipped specialists with the most relevant experience in each jurisdiction, delivered in a collaborative way. For example, BakerHostetler leads the U.S. portion of a legal consortium selected as legal services suppliers to advise the U.K. government on international trade disputes from 2021 to 2025.

Select Experience

  • Prevailed in trade remedy disputes before the agencies: persuading the International Trade Commission to find no injury to a U.S. industry from unfairly traded imports (Uncoated Groundwood Paper from Canada); the Department of Commerce to exclude and the International Trade Commission to find no injury from a distinct like product (Cast Iron Soil Pipe Fittings from China); and the International Trade Commission to find substantial harm from surging European imports (Section 201 safeguards on Wheat Gluten).
  • Successfully appealed affirmative determinations from the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to be overturned by U.S. courts (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Ltd. v. United States – antidumping; Jacobi Carbons AB v. United States – antidumping; Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd. v. United States – antidumping and subsidies;) or North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) binational panels (Softwood Lumber from Canada (IV) – injury and subsidies).
  • Acted as primary advisers to the government of Canada in its WTO challenge to the U.S. practice of “zeroing” in anti-dumping proceedings. Success there provided the foundation for successful challenges against American zeroing by the European Union, Japan and a series of other countries – the single most important legal reversal of American anti-dumping practices in more than two decades.
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Experience

  • Prevailed in trade remedy disputes before the agencies: persuading the International Trade Commission to find no injury to a U.S. industry from unfairly traded imports (Uncoated Groundwood Paper from Canada); the Department of Commerce to exclude and the International Trade Commission to find no injury from a distinct like product (Cast Iron Soil Pipe Fittings from China); and the International Trade Commission to find substantial harm from surging European imports (Section 201 safeguards on Wheat Gluten).
  • Successfully appealed affirmative determinations from the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to be overturned by U.S. courts (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Ltd. v. United States – antidumping; Jacobi Carbons AB v. United States – antidumping; Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd. v. United States – antidumping and subsidies;) or North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) binational panels (Softwood Lumber from Canada (IV) – injury and subsidies).
  • Acted as primary advisers to the government of Canada in its WTO challenge to the U.S. practice of “zeroing” in anti-dumping proceedings. Success there provided the foundation for successful challenges against American zeroing by the European Union, Japan and a series of other countries – the single most important legal reversal of American anti-dumping practices in more than two decades.
  • Persuaded the United States Court of International Trade that the Byrd Amendment, which allowed companies petitioning for trade remedies against foreign products to keep anti-dumping and countervailing duties collected by CBP, contravened NAFTA and could not apply to merchandise from Canada and Mexico. As a result of this signature legal victory, the United States Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports determined that the U.S. softwood lumber industry could not receive any money from litigation against Canadian imports, which led promptly to the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement between Canada and the United States.
  • Persuaded the president of the United States to impose a safeguard on imports of wheat gluten from Europe on behalf of Australian clients.
  • Represented the United States in proceedings before WTO dispute settlement panels and the WTO Appellate Body.*
  • Developed and implemented U.S. trade and investment policies with respect to Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore on a variety of issues, and represented the U.S. in agricultural negotiations and bilateral engagement with numerous regions and countries, including Africa, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Southeast Asia.*
  • Concluded bilateral agreements with Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam, opening markets to hundreds of millions of dollars of additional U.S. meat and poultry exports.*
  • Provided extensive legal and policy advice on the trade-related aspects of proposed food safety, animal health and horticultural regulations as part of the Office of Management and Budget’s regulatory review process.*

*Experience in government

Recognition

  • Chambers Global
    • International Trade: Customs (USA) (2017 to 2019, 2022)
    • International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions (USA) (2017 to 2020)
    • International Trade: Trade Remedies & Trade Policy (USA) (2017 to present)
  • Chambers USA
    • International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions: Highly Regarded (Band 1) (2022)
    • International Trade: Trade Remedies & Trade Policy (Nationwide) (2017 to present)
    • International Trade: Customs (Nationwide) (2021 to present)
  • The Legal 500 United States – Dispute Resolution: International Trade (2015 to present)
  • Latinvex Top International Law Firms in Latin America (2017 to present)
    • Trade and Sanctions (2021 to present)
  • U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” International Trade and Finance Law –Washington, D.C. (2016 to present)

Key Contacts