Trade Policy

• We track international negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in other multilateral, regional, and bilateral fora to ensure that our clients’ interests are being protected and advanced.
• We advise clients on the interpretation and implementation of existing trade commitments and help them take advantage of trade opportunities arising from these commitments.
• We assist clients in responding to violations of trade commitments through both formal and informal mechanisms, and we regularly assist private companies, trade associations, and governments in disputes arising under the WTO Agreements, NAFTA, and other international instruments.

• Stuart Eizenstat was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996, and has also served as Deputy Treasury Secretary, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade.
• Alan Larson was an economic counselor to five Secretaries of State, including as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, and currently serves as a Strategic Advisor and Director at the World Economic Forum.
• Christopher Roberts served as the United Kingdom’s Director-General of Trade Policy (equivalent of Deputy Trade Minister) from 1987 to 1997, and is currently chair of the policy committee of the European Services Forum.
• Marney Cheek served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, as Special Assistant and Associate General Counsel, respectively.

Representative Matters

• We advise several leading US companies on effectively responding to existing and proposed Chinese trade barriers, including in the areas of intellectual property, technology standards, and competition law, and have been instrumental in helping our clients raise the profile of these issues in US bilateral negotiations with China.
• We assist leading multinational companies and industry associations in developing and implementing strategies to respond to foreign regulations that limit their intellectual property rights in contravention of the WTO TRIPS Agreement and other regional and bilateral trade agreements.
• We counsel clients on WTO and NAFTA disputes on a wide range of matters, including sanitary and phytosanitary regulations, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, agricultural subsidies, and intellectual property issues, including the FSC and Byrd WTO disputes against the United States.  Our lawyers have argued cases before the WTO and have negotiated solutions related to implementation, compliance, and retaliation in trade disputes. 
• We have advised clients on the negotiations of every important U.S. Free Trade Agreement of the past decade and have helped them achieve their objectives in such diverse areas as technical standards, intellectual property, e-commerce, government procurement, and competition policy.
• We represented a coalition of US and foreign textile and apparel producers in the CITA safeguards petition process related to imports of Chinese textile and apparel products to the United States.