Enabling International Trade

We help your business navigate the complexities of global commerce with confidence, clarity and compliance.

At Cobden Law, drawing inspiration from Richard Cobden—the original champion of free trade—our mission is to facilitate international commerce, from assisting clients with import-export contracts and transactions, to setting up compliant global operations, to resolving cross border trade disputes.

We believe in, and advocate for, open markets and ethical business practices as a means to empower growth and prosperity across nations.

Services

Global Supply Chain
Focused Support

  • Negotiation of international agreements

    • Sales and purchase agreements

    • Affreightment and Storage

    • Distribution and Offtakes

    • Payment structuring (Guarantees, Bills of Exchange, Letters of Credit)

  • International Trade and Regulatory Advice

    • Free Trade Agreements

    • Rules of Origin, Classification and Valuation

    • U.S. Customs rules and protests

    • Export controls, Sanctions and Anti-boycott

    • Antitrust

    • Maritime

    • Intellectual Property international registration, management and disputes

    • Antidumping investigations and reviews advisory

  • International employees and agents

    • Employment agreements 

    • Consultancy and Agency agreements, including set up of operations to avoid misclassification upon implementation

  • Mergers & Acquisitions (selling, merging with, or buying a foreign operation)

    • Negotiation of MOUs and Joint Venture agreements

    • Legal Customs and Compliance Due Diligence

  • Dispute Prevention & Resolution

    • Handling cross-border commercial disputes (pre-litigation advice, arbitration strategy)

    • Advising on international arbitration clauses and dispute venues

Comprehensive Support

  • Outside General Counsel

    • Comprehensive, practical, legal advice, as needed, as outside General Counsel to the Senior Management of a business involved in international trade and business

  • Board Director Function

    • Independent Board Director with strong background on international trade operations

    • Corporate Secretary and Corporate Board operation advice

  •  Compliance Officer

    • Set up and operation of international Compliance Department

    • Advice for international trade operations pertaining to

        • export controls

        • anti-corruption

        • sanctions

        • anti-money laundering

        • antiboycott 

        • anti-trust

        • document fraud

      • Code of Conduct and Global Trade Compliance Manual

      • Record retention policies and systems

      • Hotline/Internal reporting mechanism 

      • Privacy policies (GDPR standard, ROPA implementation)

      • Incident Response Plan

      • Third party onboarding system

      • Voluntary self-disclosures

      • Employee compliance training and certification


Trade Policy Advocacy

  • Advising clients on policy developments affecting global supply chains

    • Monitoring legislative/regulatory changes affecting global trade

  • Helping businesses lobby

    • Comment on trade regulations (e.g., Section 301 cases, WTO complaints). Drafting comment letters and lobbying materials

  • Representing companies in trade association meetings or public consultations

The Cobden Way

Richard Cobden, diplomat, statesman, believed that free trade leads to a reduction in armaments and the promotion of international peace.

He was tireless in promoting open trade between nations as a means of economic development for all classes. His work led to the repeal of corn tariffs in Britain and a commercial treaty between that country and France in 1860, the first free trade agreement of its kind, which included a "most favoured nation" clause that ensured equal trade treatment between countries. This clause has been incorporated into all modern multilateral free trade agreements.

”The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace, the spread of commerce, and the diffusion of education, than upon the labours of cabinets and foreign offices.” Richard Cobden