Office of The Chief Counsel
for International Commerce

Welcome

This webpage is sponsored by the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce. It contains papers, memoranda, speeches, and other materials on international trade and investment law with a focus on export issues. Comments or questions on individual items on this website should be directed to the author or compiler of the item who is named in each document at occic@doc.gov.

For more information about the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce, please see our Mission Statement.

Mission Statement

The Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce (OCC-IC) is responsible for legal matters related to the promotion of U.S. trade and investment and the competitiveness of domestic firms abroad. OCC-IC provides legal advice to the Under Secretary for International Trade Administration (ITA) and the following components of
ITA: U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, Manufacturing and Services, and Market Access and Compliance. In carrying out its mission, OCC-IC performs the following functions:

1. Provides legal advice in the negotiation, implementation, interpretation, and enforcement of international commercial agreements, including:

• Bilateral and multilateral trade agreements (such as the World Trade Organization and NAFTA)
• Bilateral investment treaties
• Multilateral agreements on bribery in international business transactions.

2. Provides legal counsel with respect to:

• Monitoring compliance by trading partners with U.S. trade and investment agreements
• Export promotion activities (including trade shows, trade missions, and other export development activities)
• Implementation of U.S. trade laws
• Implementation of Title III of the Export Trading Company Act of 1982
• Support of U.S. companies competing for overseas projects
• Implementation of the Exon-Florio Amendment on foreign investment in the United States.

3. Provides advice generally on other international agreements, laws, regulations and commercial practices in foreign countries and the United States affecting trade and investment, including domestic statutes (except anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws), investment, antitrust and competition policy, international taxation, trade finance, foreign business practices, intellectual property rights, arbitration and other commercial practices, barter and counter trade, and bribery and corrupt payments.

4. Provides informal advice to U.S. businesses and attorneys in the private sector on all of the above matters with the aim of developing and promoting U.S. competitiveness in international trade and investment.

For more information, you can visit our home page for site links to our explanatory papers on international commercial law topics. You may also contact us directly at:

The Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
14th St. and Constitution Ave., N.W.
Room 5624
Washington, DC 20230
Tel: 202-482-0937
Fax: 202-482-4076

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