A political economist specialising in Customs and Trade Law, with some 30 years experience in dealing with these matters on behalf of multi-national companies. He is acknowledged as one of the foremost experts in US Export Controls in Europe and was responsible for Compliance Worldwide
He graduated in Politics, Economics and Statistics and has a post-graduate diploma in Computing and Business Studies. After nearly thirty years dealing with Trade issues on both sides of the Atlantic and with Asia-Pacific countries, he is well placed to interpret European, US and International Export Controls and Customs legislation especially for multinational and High Technology companies.
Alex was for many years Head of Trade and Regulatory Affairs at ICL and Fujitsu-ICL. He also served as Vice President of the US Companies of The Group.
In Brussels, London, International Chamber of Commerce HQ in Paris, and in Europe generally, he is best known for his contributions to the development of Trade Policy and the WTO.
He has been active on these issues and Export Controls in Trade Associations, Conferences and "Think Tanks ".
He is best known in the IT industry world-wide for leading UK, US, Japanese and European High Tech industry in successful opposition to European Anti-Dumping and Customs tariffs on Microcircuits, PCBs and Software and in obtaining suspensions of Customs and Anti-Dumping Duties. His success on these issues has led to multi-million of ECU in Tariff reductions for the High Tech industry.
In Washington DC, he assisted in the development of US Trade Policy on GATT, Tariffs, Export Control including industry representations to USTR and to Congress. He successfully negotiated with the US Departments of Commerce, State and Defence increasingly broad exemptions from the US Export Administration Regulations including a "deminimis rule" and precedent setting exemptions from US embargoes on trade.
He was registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), for the purposes of influencing changes in US Regulations
Other US issues he covered included:-
Customs valuation, classification and compliance
Free Trade Zones / Trade with Canada and Mexico under NAFTA
Due diligence on companies acquired or merged with the client company in matters of Export Control, FCC Regulations and Customs law
Public procurement including access to defence markets and interpretation of Pentagon regulations
Liaison with embassies, particularly the British Embassy
US Extraterritorial controls on re-exports
Controlling a substantial legal budget and the efforts of US lawyers
He has written submissions to Select Committees of both the House of Lords and Commons, as well as leading industry delegations to the European Parliament, the European Commission and to NATO Parliamentarians. He has addressed UK, US and European legislators, Commissioners and Chief Justices on Trade, GATT and competition issues.
He has been involved in lobbying through Trade Associations and directly to European Commission, British Government and US Government Agencies for changes in regulation in Export Control, Anti-dumping, Customs, Trade Legislation and Industrial policy.
He has successfully dealt with Customs cases, Import/Export issues, etc. for over 20 years in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Singapore, EU Countries, Hong Kong and every English speaking country in the world including S. Africa, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA, Australia, and Ireland.
The specific areas of Customs Law included:-
Customs valuation including Computer hardware and software and Electronic Transmission. Classification of whole variety of hi-tech products including chain of sales transactions and issues of ownership. Preference for entry to the EU, Origin of Goods NAFTA - North America Free Trade Area Customs and Export Control Compliance Warehousing under Customs Regulations Free Trade Zones in US, Europe and elsewhere Inward and Outward Processing Relief, Temporary Imports Counterfeiting and Trades Descriptions Act UK