International Trade Law Expert to Speak on Free Trade Agreements at ITC NAFTA/FTA Webinar

May 13, 2010 - PRLog -- The Global Market Series-NAFTA/Free Trade Agreement Certification, an award winning seven part series presented by industry experts and certified by North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, will be available by webinar  will feature Stuart Seidel, Partner at Baker & McKenzie, LLP. Washington D.C., who has practiced Customs and trade law for over 40 years.    

Mr. Seidel will be speaking May 14th and address topics regarding CAFTA-DR, “The New NAFTA” and how to become familiar with CAFTA-DR (Central America Free Trade Agreement & Dominican Republic) rules and regulaltions.  He will also speak about current & pending Free Trade Agreements and compare the similarities, differences, requirements and benefits of each of the current FTAs.

Listed among The Best Lawyers in America, Mr. Seidel is also a recipient of the Presidential Rank and the Excellence in Government Award. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences on customs and free trade matters.

Stuart Seidel is a partner in the Baker & McKenzie Washington Office. He joined Baker & McKenzie after 32 years with the U.S. Customs Service and specializes in Customs, international trade, free trade agreements and border protection of intellectual property rights. Mr. Seidel joined the Customs Service in New York in 1969 as a Customs Law Specialist responsible for processing penalty cases, particularly those involving commercial fraud violations. From 1970 - 1988 he served in the Office of Chief Counsel, U.S. Customs Service in Washington, D.C. as a senior attorney, Assistant Chief Counsel (Enforcement and Operations) and Regional Counsel. During that period, he negotiated bi-lateral mutual assistance agreements and preclearance agreements with foreign countries, drafted legislation, testified before Congressional committees (both in the Senate and House of Representatives) and supervised Customs enforcement related litigation, including several important search and seizure cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.

From 1988 until 2001, Mr. Seidel served in the Office of Regulations and Rulings as Director, International Trade Compliance and Assistant Commissioner. During that period he served on the Customs Modernization Act team composed of members of the import-export trade community and government officials. He had a major role in developing Customs “informed compliance” program and was responsible for the issuance of approximately 60 informed compliance publications for the trade and Customs policy of receiving trade input before proposing major regulatory changes, as well as making Customs rulings and Valuation Encyclopedia available on the internet. His office was in charge of tariff classification and value, entry procedures and carrier rulings, duty determination and refunds (including drawback), intellectual property rights, penalties, international agreements, disclosure law policy and appeals, and regulations drafting. In addition, Mr. Seidel assisted foreign governments in adopting regulations and laws consistent with World Trade Organization requirements, including Asian development Bank and U.N. Development Programs to strengthen the Customs law in the People’s Republic of China.

This seminar covers the main steps in the process of utilizing NAFTA and other Free Trade Agreements. Compliance regulation is strongly emphasized.  Topics include: how to determine if claiming NAFTA status is right for your product, how to classify your product to claim the advantages of NAFTA and other FTAs, the specific NAFTA requirements when shipping to Mexico and Canada, the benefits, details and requirements of the other eleven FTAs and pending FTAs and how to complete a NAFTA Certificate of Origin.

The complete NAFTA/FTA Session Series are May 12, 13, 14, 2010  
Times: May 12, 13, 14th ,8am-noon & May 14th, 12:30-1:30 pm. CST
Location: by Webinar or in person at Bill J. Priest Institute, 1402 Corinth St., Dallas, TX 75215

Seminars can be taken individually or as a complete series for certification

Contact: 214-747-1300 or Elyse Eriksson, Director of Training, eeriksson@dcccd.edu

Registration: www.iexportimport.com

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The International SBDC, Dallas, TX, provides counseling and training on international trade issues, importing and exporting. Services include: free one-on-one counseling, free online counseling, low cost training and market research. The ITC is a proud member of the North Texas Small Business Development Network.