International Law

To meet the ever-expanding global needs of our clients, Dilworth Paxson recently launched an International Law Group led by veteran international lawyer, Margaret McClellan Gatti, Esq. formerly of Gatti & Associates, a New Jersey based-law firm. Dilworth now has a combined international practice of more than 35 years and plans to expand upon and further develop its international practice.

The ability to offer our clients this concentrated level of international expertise is critical in enabling them to successfully navigate the complex and often obscure laws of international trade and international business, the enforcement of which has dramatically increased. These laws have a jurisdictional reach that frequently extends beyond the borders of the United States and encompasses foreign operations and foreign-made products.

Further, the laws of international trade and international business often produce results that appear contrary to normal business practice and expectations, such as asset acquisitions that result in successor liability for import/export violations and transactions being deemed as exports even when nothing leaves the United States.

Successful navigation of international trade laws and international business laws is essential because the stakes are high. Violations of these laws generally do not require any knowledge of the law and even unintentional and inadvertent violations expose the violator to severe penalties, including monetary fines for individual violations which have increased to $250,000 from $11,000 over a period of less than three years.

Some of the areas in which our International Law Group provides counsel include:

The International Group lawyers have completed many different types of international trade and international business transactions involving a diverse range of industries and numerous foreign countries. Our clients range from start-up operations to multinational corporations with operations throughout the world. We represent and provide legal counsel to clients based in the U.S. as well as to clients located abroad.

Customs Law and Import Compliance Services

U.S. Customs is responsible for regulating the import of goods & services into the United States, regulating the export of goods & services out of the United States and enforcing its own import and export regulations as well as those of other U.S. Government agencies. Foreign customs agencies have similar responsibilities.

In practicing Customs Law and providing import services, Dilworth's International Group lawyers assist importers and exporters in achieving and maintaining full compliance with all relevant Customs laws and regulations - both in the U.S. and abroad. We represent our clients before the U.S. Customs Service, the Court of International Trade as well as other federal courts and assist our clients in dealing with the import/export requirements of a host of other federal agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Consumer Products Safety Commission, Department of Commerce and Agricultural, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), U. S. Department of State and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

While importers and exporters are the primary focus of our Customs Law and Import practice, we also provide Customs Law and Import services to Customs House Brokers, Freight Forwarders, NVOCC's, Air Carriers and Ocean Carriers.

Export Controls Law and Export Compliance Services

Federal laws and regulations divide responsibility for administering U.S. exports among various government agencies, including the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The first step for all exporters, therefore, is to determine which U.S. government agency has jurisdiction over their exports. Thereafter, exporters need to assess if their intended export is legally permissible, the procedures to follow in making their export and the activities to avoid along the way. These exporter concerns are not fleeting, as export records must be maintained for 5 years and as export enforcement actions can affect both the original exporter and any company that acquires the original exporter, without giving any consideration to the acquisition vehicle employed. The export services provided by the attorneys in Dilworth's International Group are designed to meet exporters' legal needs and to assist exporters with regulatory compliance.

International Trade Law

International Trade Law is a combination of privately-negotiated contractual arrangements and varied national and international laws that come together to govern the cross border trade of goods and services.

Multilateral treaties in which the U.S. is a participating country -- notably the U.N. Convention for the International Sales of Goods and the U.N. Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards -- yield often-unanticipated results in private contractual relations and play an important role in shaping the outcome of international trade transactions.

Also important in shaping international trade transactions are unilateral, bilateral and multi-lateral free trade agreements between and among the U.S. and its trading partners as well as between and among countries and regions that exclude the U.S.. These free trade agreements offer subscribing countries preferential tariff treatment in return for compliance with the origin rules that are prescribed within individual free trade agreements.

Adding further to the mix is a series of federal laws and regulations that prescribe international trade controls and international trade procedures, which are very often quite complex, somewhat confusing and not always fully transparent.

The state of the existing laws and regulations, notwithstanding, importers and exporters who disregard the importance of strict compliance with international trade laws and regulations do so at their own peril, in that these laws and regulations are actively and vigorously enforced by the U.S. Government and by foreign governments. Thus, strict compliance with international trade laws and regulations, while not in its own right a mandatory legal obligation, is the only way to go for importers and exporters who wish to avoid fines, penalties, incarceration and suspension and/or revocation of their international trading privileges.

International Transportation Law

A key component to any international business transaction is an arduous assessment of the most efficient, most cost-effective and most secure manner in which to move goods through the stream of commerce. Through the use of alternative carriers and transportation mechanisms, shippers can develop specific strategies to minimize the cost of moving products to foreign marketplaces and to reduce their liabilities to the extent possible.

In assessing the alternative carriers and transportation mechanisms, which are available, shippers must deal with international transportation Law. This law is an amalgam of private contractual arrangements, national laws and international treaties, such as the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA) and the Warsaw Convention.

In practicing International Transportation Law, Dilworth's International lawyers represent shippers, Customs Brokers, Freight Forwarders, NVOCC, air carriers, ocean carriers and warehouse operators.

International Corporate Law

To be truly competitive in business today, companies must have a business orientation that is at least international, if not multinational, in scope. This means that modern-day companies must open themselves up to dealing not only with the laws of the country in which they are domiciled, but also with the laws of the countries in which they transact business operations.

International Corporate law, therefore, is an amalgam of private contractual arrangements, national laws and foreign country laws. The breadth and extent of International Corporate Law is often times not fully recognized or appreciated. Adding to the complexity of International Corporate Law are the varied forms that international business operations assume.

These forms include incoming/outgoing foreign investments, foreign joint ventures, foreign distributor/agent relationships, foreign mergers and acquisitions, international restructurings, new technology exploitation and intellectual property licensing.

In providing International Corporate Law Services, our lawyers work with small and medium-sized businesses, multi-national concerns, U.S.-based operations, foreign operations and industries of all types.

International Tax Law

Every international business transaction must provide for tax consequences likely to be encountered in at least two different countries - the country in which the party undertaking the international business transaction is domiciled and the country in which the international business transaction is undertaken.

The United States taxes international business transactions in accord with the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code, the Internal Revenue Regulations and a series of tax treaties that the United States has negotiated -- and continues to negotiate -- on an individual basis with various countries throughout the world.

Countries outside the United States tax international business transactions in accord with the requirements of their respective tax laws, tax regulations and individually negotiated country-specific tax treaties.

It is in fact the confluence of different countries' separate tax regimes in international business transactions that makes the discipline of international tax law as complex, problematic and troublesome as it often tends to be. Nonetheless, the tax consequences of international business transactions need to be taken into account in the planning and execution of international business transactions, as failure to do so could quite possibly cause an otherwise- profitable business transaction to become a loosing proposition.

For more information or questions, please contact any of our lawyers below:
Margaret McClellan Gatti, Chair
Mark A. Sullivan, Senior Associate

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