Trade - Japan

Our Washington, D.C.-based group works on a daily basis with staff and political level officials at the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State, Energy and Homeland Security, as well as the White House, U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. International Trade Commission and Congress. We represent clients from virtually all business sectors including trading, financial services, machinery and equipment, steel, information technology, food and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. As needed, we combine our substantive trade expertise with the expertise of other Alston & Bird attorneys, such as those in the firm’s Legislative and Public Policy, Antitrust, White Collar, Intellectual Property and Immigration Groups to form a team to address the needs of the client. In this respect, in cooperation with Alston & Bird’s top-rated Intellectual Property Group, the Trade and Regulatory Group litigates unfair import practice cases at the U.S. International Trade Commission under Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act.

Our attorneys offer in-depth expertise in the following specific disciplines of international trade and regulatory practice:

• Customs law
• Export controls and antiboycott regulations
• Foreign assets controls, embargoes and sanctions
• Unfair trade proceedings relating to intellectual property (Section 337)
• The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Trade remedy proceedings, such as antidumping, countervailing duty and safeguards investigations, and other trade proceedings, both in the U.S. and abroad
• Multilateral (e.g., WTO, FTAA) and bilateral and regional agreements (e.g., NAFTA)
• International trade policy and legislative issues
• Duty saving programs, such as foreign trade zones, drawback, GSP and TIBs
• Foreign investment (Exon-Florio (CFIUS) notifications, structuring of FOCI trust arrangements, etc.)
• Anti-money laundering and terrorist finance
• Data management and privacy
• Homeland security
• International financial institutions

Our Experience with Japanese Companies

Alston & Bird’s International Trade and Regulatory Group has assisted Japanese clients in the following areas:

• Internal investigations concerning international trade practices.
• Focused Assessments and audits by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
• C-TPAT security matters.
• Foreign trade zone and NAFTA matters.
• Customs classification, valuation and marking issues.
• Customs penalties and liquidated damages matters.
• Advice to importers on the intersection between tax transfer pricing and customs value.
• Designing and assisting importers and exporters in compliance programs.
• Extensive advice on compliance with re-export and nonproliferation provisions in the Export Administration Regulations.
• Advice and implementation of advice concerning handling of routed exports.
• Managing export control crises, including disclosures and responding to government investigations.
• Advice to numerous clients on compliance by their international operations, including third-country subsidiaries and branches, with all sanctions programs.

Representative Experience

• Representation in the first antidumping anti-circumvention case.
• Representation of foreign producers in antidumping proceedings resulting in suspension agreements.
• Representation of both foreign and U.S. companies in U.S. antidumping proceedings, including investigations, administrative reviews and sunset reviews.
• Representation of U.S. and global companies in antidumping proceedings in Mexico, Brazil, China, Egypt, South Africa and India.
• Representation of parties in section 201 proceedings, including representation of the Chinese steel industry in the steel section 201 proceeding.