Our International Trade Team is strategically positioned to serve manufacturers and their suppliers operating across North America and in global markets.  With deep roots in the automotive and industrial sectors and extensive experience negotiating complex cross-border transactions, we help clients navigate multifaceted regulatory frameworks, reduce risk, and seize opportunities in international commerce.

We understand the unique pressures that both OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers face – tight delivery schedules, just-in-time logistics, and rigorous compliance requirements – and our expertise allows us to craft legal solutions tailored to help our clients meet these demands. We help clients structure supply chains to maximize savings and avoid costly enforcement actions.

Services

Our services include the following:

• Free Trade Agreements and USMCA Compliance

  Advise Tier-1 suppliers and other importers on rules of origin, certification, and compliance under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) and other free trade agreements.

• Import and Export Compliance

  Counsel on customs regulations, harmonized tariff schedule classification, valuation, and documentation for cross-border movement of parts, tooling, and capital equipment. Assess and assist with historical audits, forward supply chain planning, post summary corrections, protests, responses to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) CF28 or CF29 notices.

• Trade Remedies and Investigations

  Represent clients to ensure compliance with antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, Section 301, Section 232 and Section 201 actions, including questionnaire responses, scope exclusions, scope petitions.

• Sanctions and Embargoes

  Provide guidance on ensuring that clients’ global operations remain compliant with U.S., Canadian, and international sanctions and embargo regimes—especially critical for multinational suppliers with complex footprints.

• Global Trade Strategy

  Assist with global sourcing, foreign direct investment, trade financing, and trade-related dispute resolution, including before U.S. and international bodies.

Representative Matters

Examples of past projects in which members of Bodman’s International Trade Team played a lead role include the following.

• We developed an in-house customs compliance team for a Fortune 500 publicly-traded company including hiring experienced trade staff, drafting policies, preparing import and export compliance manuals, ACE enrollment and initiation of CBP self-filer status.
• On behalf of a manufacturer with international operations, we mitigated over $2M in potential penalties and interest charges with CBP arising from HTSUS misclassification claims.
• We helped a global manufacturer avoid all penalties through cooperation with the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, following repeated technical violations of anti-boycott regulations in a cross-border trade financing transaction.
• We helped a client eliminate penalties and reduce liability from $7M in unpaid antidumping and countervailing duties, penalties and interest following a formal notice of investigation.
• We managed a team that lobbied Congress for industry-specific protections on various administrative trade remedy enforcement actions.
• We successfully negotiated with the US Department of Commerce International Trade Administration for product specific scope exclusions from various antidumping and countervailing duty orders.
• On behalf of financial institutions, we have reviewed export insurance policies, assisted with assignments of insurance to creditors, and assisted with a claim and collection of export insurance due to a foreign buyer’s non-payment.
• We prepared various trade finance instruments including import and export letters of credit and modified a U.S.-based bank’s letters of credit for use in Canada.