INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS: DESCRIPTION

With a solid public policy presence in Canada and the European Union, our government affairs team assists clients in developing regulatory and other public policy solutions in many countries around the globe.

Our Canada government affairs team includes a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, the former chief of staff of the U.S. ambassador, and professionals who have held key positions in the federal government and Congress.

Our Brussels-based attorneys counsel clients on judicial and administrative developments in the European Union and in most of the EU Member States. We assist companies and trade associations in developing and implementing strategies designed to influence the European legislative and regulatory process.

Representative Matters

• We helped individual clients form an industry group coalition to represent their interests in international negotiations leading to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and other agreements being considered pursuant to the Bio Diversity Treaty of 1992.
• We provide full staff support, including the Executive Director position, to The Canadian-American Business Council, the premier voice of the Canadian-American business community in Washington.  Established in 1987, the Council is a non-profit, issues-oriented organization dedicated to elevating the private sector perspective on issues that affect the two nations. 
• We successfully represented a Canadian province in a dispute about the trade of live swine between the United States and Canada.
• We developed a European lobbying strategy for a pharmaceutical company relating to legislative action on the recycling of health care waste.
• We reviewed product liability issues for generic drugs in several European jurisdictions.
• For a food producing client, we reviewed existing national legislation on the authorization and labeling of genetically modified food in the European Union.
• We managed a complaint with the European Commission for infringement of Community law by Germany concerning the introduction of local German taxes on disposable packaging.