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.
• Ambassador John Veroneau recently served as Deputy United States Trade Representative (USTR) where he had broad supervisory responsibilities over US trade policy.  He previously served as USTR’s General Counsel, responsible for US trade law and litigation activities.
• Ambassador Alan Larson served as an economic advisor to five Secretaries of State, as Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in two Administrations, and as Ambassador to the OECD.
• Tim Stratford served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, and is the most senior former US trade official to join the US business community in China.  He also served previously as Minister-Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and as Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
• Peter Lichtenbaum served as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration.  He also served as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, leading the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration.
• Marney Cheek served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as Associate General Counsel.

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.