Robert is a Board Certified International Attorney, Licensed Customs Broker, and Certified Export Specialist whose practice focuses on the planning, compliance, enforcement, and security dimensions of U.S. import and export transactions. With over twenty years of professional experience, Robert brings seasoned, specialized, and multicultural know-how and perspective to the analysis and resolution of customs and trade issues.
The past couple of weeks have seen a flurry of important Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) developments. This post flags the things importers need to know now in a way that links back into the bigger picture of what importers need to be doing to achieve UFLPA compliance. Let’s start with the latest UFLPA
Questions & Answers on Managing Intellectual Property Rights in the U.S. Customs Regulatory Environment Earlier this year I sat down with the Asociación Interamericana de la Propiedad Intelectual (ASIPI) to discuss what can be done to protect trademarks, copyrights, and patents in the U.S. Customs regulatory environment. The following questions and answers are from
This is the final installment in our multipart series designed to help right holders and importers better understand the opportunities and obligations that attach to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the U.S. Customs regulatory environment. This installment explores the main issues surrounding the protection and enforcement of patents in the international trade arena and offers best practice tips for
This post is the second part of the second installment in a multipart series designed to help right holders and importers better understand the opportunities and obligations that attach to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the U.S. Customs regulatory environment. Part 1 of the second installment discussed copyright infringement levels recognized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection
We are pleased to present the second installment in a multipart series designed to help right holders and importers better understand the opportunities and obligations that attach to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the U.S. Customs regulatory environment. The focus of this installment is on copyrights. Owing to the diversity of considerations wrapped up in
This post is part of a multipart series designed to help right holders and importers better understand the opportunities and obligations that attach to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the international trade regulatory environment. The first installment in this series is on trademarks, and is split into two parts. Part 1 explored infringement levels recognized by
This post marks the launch of a multipart series designed to help right holders and importers better understand the opportunities and obligations that attach to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the international trade regulatory environment. The first installment in this series is on trademarks. Our treatment of this topic is, on account of the diversity
The shift away from the unipolar and free trade-oriented world of the 1990s and early 2000s to the peer competition-driven managed trade and industrial policies of today has resulted in an increasingly restrictive and protected U.S. import environment. The significantly stepped-up enforcement activity that characterizes this trend has, in turn, increased compliance risk for U.S. importers. This post will attempt to help U.S. importers mitigate some of that compliance risk through a set of up-to-date import practice tips.
Expect U.S. customs to get even tougher on imports in the next year.
Citing the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses committed by the People’s Republic of China (China) against ethnic and religious minority groups in the western part of the country, Congress acted to strengthen CBP’s ability to enforce the forced labor prohibitions set forth in Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 by enacting the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) on 23 December 2021. To this end, the UFLPA applies a presumption that goods produced/manufactured (either wholly or in part) or mined in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) or by entities designated on the UFLPA Entity List are made with forced labor and prohibited from entering the U.S.
