International Trade & Customs - PRACTICE AREAS

The practice

The International Trade & Customs practice inherits rich traditions of international law firm Magisters which merged with EPAM in July 2011. It has 14 years of experience in advising on intergovernmental trade agreements and customs issues, and has participated in more than 100 trade investigations in the United States, EU, Russia, China, Ukraine, Belarus, Chile, Peru and other countries.

Today the practice brings together experts from the Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Minsk offices of the Firm. They advise and represent industrial conglomerates, sovereign governments and intergovernmental organizations on legal matters in international trade, including those related to the WTO and the Eurasian Economic Union, on anti-dumping, special and other trade investigations as well as legal actions challenging investigation outcomes. Furthermore, we offer our clients a preventive risk assessment and mitigation program should their imports become subject to investigation. This program allows our clients to attain favorable results in such investigations and complete them without exposure to sanctions.

We advise companies involved in international trade in their relations with the CIS customs authorities, in the development of their strategies with respect to import, export, import for processing, temporary imports and other customs procedures - the strategies that enable the companies to attain benefits with respect to customs clearance, customs controls and payments of customs duties. Given our reputation in the market, which is enhanced by successful representation of the Bank of New York in an unprecedented USD 22.5bn dispute with the Russian Federal Customs Service, we are often engaged for representation in disputes involving customs authorities.

Services

We advise on such matters as:

anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations and safeguard actions;
assessment of risks of the initiation of antidumping investigations against the client’s goods in foreign jurisdictions;
client representation in investigations contemplating the imposition of antidumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures, reduction of antidumping duties or exemption of the client from the application of duties, administrative and judicial review of the investigative findings and conclusions;
global customs strategies and management, including classification, valuation, customs fraud, and country-of-origin issues;
сustoms strategies for companies doing business in the Eurasian Economic Union, and for the branches and representative offices of the companies incorporated in the countries outside the EAEU;
сompliance of trading operations with international principles and regulations, including export (re-export) controls and customs sanctions;
analysis and advisory services on WTO, multilateral and bilateral agreements, including analysis of competitive policies, and advice on various aspects of WTO accession;
exclusive distribution agreement schemes involving parallel imports, anti-trust requirements, etc.;
intellectual property related border control matters.