Christopher Skinner is a senior associate in the Antitrust, Competition & International Trade Practice Group. His practice focuses on US export control restrictions, customs matters, economic sanctions programs, trade remedy actions, consumer product safety regulatory matters, market access, and state and federal antitrust regulatory and litigation matters. In addition, Christopher regularly counsels clients on compliance with government ethics rules and regulations and federal lobbying disclosure laws.

Christopher has represented a range of companies with respect to compliance with US export restrictions under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) administered by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security and economic sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. He has also represented and counseled US importers and non-US exporters in a variety of US customs matters including ruling requests, protests, tariff classifications, seizures, prior disclosures, requests for internal advice, penalties, customs investigations, country of origin marking, valuation and drawback. Christopher has represented both petitioners and respondents in antidumping and countervailing duty matters brought before the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission

Repräsentative Mandate

Export Controls, Trade Remedies and International Trade

• Preparing commodity classification requests and commodity jurisdiction requests for parts and components of a range of military and civilian aircraft and land vehicles and other electronic devices.
• Counseling a US-based aircraft component manufacturer and exporter with respect to compliance with ITAR and EAR license requirements.
• Counseling US and non-US companies with respect to compliance with US antiboycott laws and regulations related to the Cuba Sanctions Program.
• Representing US-based companies in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings before the US Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission including successful representations of a respondent in Metal Calendar Slides from Japan (2007) and a petitioner in Raw Flexible Magnets from China (2008).
• Advising a wide variety of global companies with respect to US federal and state government obligations under bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements and trade preference programs.

Customs

• Defending a US-based firm against a challenge to its Foreign Trade Zone status brought by domestic manufacturers.
• Representing a US-based importer before US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Headquarters in a tariff classification dispute, which involved responses to Customs investigations, prior disclosures, a protest and a request for internal advice.
• Preparing petitions for mitigation in CBP penalty proceedings.
• Counseling global companies with respect to customs valuation and drawback regulations.
• Representing clients in civil litigation in federal and state courts pursuing and defending against the Sherman Antitrust Act claims of monopolization and attempted monopolization.
• Counseling clients with respect to federal antitrust regulations relating to monopolization, resale price maintenance and price discrimination.
• Counseling clients with respect to Hart-Scott-Rodino Act premerger notification regulations and foreign premerger regulations and preparing premerger notifications for submission to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice.

Antitrust

Publications

• Co-author, "International Legal Developments in Review: 2008,“ Customs Law, The International Lawyer, Summer 2009.