Melvin Schwechter represents clients before the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of State, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Trade Representative on all types of import and export-related matters, including audits, investigations, penalty proceedings, prior and voluntary self disclosures of violations, export licensing of military and "dual use" products and technology, Technical Assistance and Manufacturing License Agreements, trade sanctions and embargoes, rulings and Commodity Jurisdiction determinations, the classification and valuation of merchandise, marking and country of origin issues, NAFTA and other free trade agreements, foreign trade zones, drawback and other duty savings mechanisms, unfair trade practice proceedings, and related administrative actions. He also appears before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in judicial appeals of administrative determinations concerning such matters. Mr. Schwechter frequently conducts import/export compliance self assessments for clients, helps them establish compliance and recordkeeping programs, and provides import/export training.
Mr. Schwechter previously served as the U.S. Department of Commerce staff attorney responsible for that Department's export control program.
Representative Matters
· Represented clients in numerous customs, export control, and trade sanction/embargo audits, investigations, penalty proceedings, and prior and voluntary self disclosures;
· Performed over 125 import/export compliance self-assessments for clients in a wide variety of industries;
· Represented Alcoa in litigation challenging the constitutionality of Harbor Maintenance Taxes as applied to exports; named co-chair of Plaintiffs' Steering Committee overseeing more than $1 billion in refunds of such taxes to several thousand companies;
· Successfully petitioned the Foreign Trade Zones Board to allow the creation of a special purpose subzone allowing the client to realize millions of dollars in duty savings;
· Represented clients in more than 40 antidumping, countervailing duty, and other international trade proceedings involving a wide variety of products, and succeeded in an action, on behalf of an exporter of Russian titanium sponge, in revoking an antidumping duty order that had been in effect for 30 years.
· Successfully represented a variety of companies before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in connection with national security reviews of foreign acquisitions of U.S. businesses.
Other Activities
· Trustee and Vice President, The Historical Society of the U.S. Court of International Trade
· Past President, Customs and International Trade Bar Association
· Previous Co-chair, Export Compliance and Facilitation Committee, American Association of Exporters and Importers
· Previous eligible panelist, North America Free Trade Agreement, Chapter 19 Dispute Resolution
· Adjunct Professor, International Trade and Customs Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 1983-1999