International Trade, Customs and Commercial Law

Gross & Becroft is a specialist legal firm carrying on practice in the areas of International Trade, Customs and Commercial Law.  Our work mainly involves commercial and regulatory issues concerning imports and exports of goods and services and investment.

Current Issues

• Louis Gross and Ross Becroft have both been named as experts in the Trade Law field in the 2010 Best Lawyers of Australia Guide published by the Australian Financial Review. The Guide is based on a comprehensive survey (220,000 evaluations) of lawyers by other lawyers.
• Current Issues for 2010 in our practice include a number of anti-dumping complaints (plywood, CFG, aluminium extrusions), trademark infringement and parallel importation of products, issues concerning distributorships and joint ventures, excise issues including matters arising from changes to the definition of beer and other consequences of alcopops legislation, tariff classification of partially preserved olives and off road tyres and contesting the refusal to grant an export permit for an aboriginal painting under the Protection of Moveable Cultural Heritage Act.
• Please read our New Articles dealing with tariff classification of partially preserved olives, the definition under Customs law of an Import Sales Transaction, and the WTO panel decision in Australia - Measures Affecting the Importation of Apples from New Zealand.

Full content on these topics is available under the Articles section of this site.

Contact us if you may have any customs or trade related issue for which you may need advice or representation.

Practice Areas

Since 1984, our firm has regularly dealt with the following types of issues:

CUSTOMS, EXCISE AND OTHER REGULATORY ISSUES

• Tariff Classification of Goods;
• Customs Valuation;
• Tariff Concession Orders (TCO's);
• Quarantine;
• Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties Investigations;
• Issues concerning World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Transport Treaties;
• Rules of Origin;
• Transfer Pricing;
• Excise and Customs Duty on Alcohol, Tobacco, Petroleum and Biodiesel;
• Customs Investigations and Prosecutions;
• Applications under the Enhanced Policy By-Law Scheme (EPBS);
• Government Assistance Schemes (such as SIP).

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• International Sale, Distribution, Agency, Licensing and Royalty Agreements;
• Maritime, Freight, Shipping and Transportation Documentation, Disputes and Trade Finance;
• General Advice to Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders;
• Trading Terms and Conditions;
• Advocacy and Review of Government Policy concerning Customs and Trade matters;
• Barriers and regulations concerning direct foreign investment.

COMMERCIAL LAW

• Trade Practices Issues;
• Contracts;
• Shareholder Agreements, Sale of Business;
• Commercial Litigation;
• Property and Commercial Leases;
• Corporate Insolvency.

For more information on these topics, please see Our Services page

Clients

Our clients include:

• Importers and exporters of finished goods, raw materials and resources;
• Local producers who compete with importers;
• Customs Brokers, Freight Forwarders and Transport Companies that are involved with the movement of goods into and out of Australia;
• Foreign companies interested in investing in operations in Australia and Australian businesses wishing to set up production facilities overseas;
• Organizations representing the collective interests of particular industries affected by international trading;
• Other Businesses or entrepreneurs providing goods or services or investing.

We act for companies of all sizes and also for small start-ups looking to fill niche markets.

Our firm's aim is to provide prompt and practical advice and results-orientated service in dealing with complex legal issues.

Our firm is based in Melbourne, Australia. However, we do undertake work around Australia and internationally.

Should you require advice or assistance, please direct your enquiries by telephone on +61 3 9866 5666 or facsimile on +61 3 9866 5644. Alternative you may contact us by email through our contacts page.