Frederic D Van Arnam Jr

Mr. Van Arnam is a partner of Barnes, Richardson & Colburn, a national federal regulatory practice with offices in New York, Chicago and Washington.  Rick, as he is known, practices in all areas of Customs, import, international trade, and export controls law, and has been with the firm since 1991, and a partner since 1998. He handles a wide variety of matters, representing clients before the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS, covering EAR matters), U.S. Trade Representative (USTR, covering WTO matters), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Department of State (ITAR and USML matters), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) and numerous other administrative agencies that regulate international business transactions and global trade matters.  He assists clients with foreign tariff issues too.

A typical problem handled by Mr. Van Arnam involves cutting through the regulatory red tape arising from moving merchandise (finished product, parts, components and raw materials), money, intellectual property or information across international borders and through supply chains.  It could involve advising a client in ways to avoid regulatory problems prior to the transaction, handling an issue, such as a detention or civil violation, that could arise as a result of an ongoing or completed transaction, or addressing supply chain security or compliance issues.  On many occasions he has advised clients on making voluntary disclosures of self-discovered errors to Customs, BIS, OFAC and other government agencies.  He advocates on behalf of clients before these agencies, protesting actions taken by the government against his clients' interests.

A large portion of his practice is devoted to assisting companies implement or upgrade corporate compliance programs covering their import, export or supply chain security programs.  In this capacity he performs self-assessments, as well as assisting companies that are undergoing formal compliance assessment reviews conducted by U.S. agencies such as CBP. 

Mr. Van Arnam has litigated many cases before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  Also, he is experienced in defending companies in False Claims Act actions where the underlying violation raised by a qui tam plaintiff involves Customs laws, anti-dumping or countervailing duties, or other international trade matters.  In addition, in the course of purchasing, selling or moving goods in international business, contracts are breached or merchandise is damaged. In those cases, he has helped his clients resolve their disputes, be it through the negotiation of a settlement or through arbitration or litigation.

With his work as regulatory counsel for a leading U.S. trade association, he has considerable experience with issues involving the FDA's regulation of imported medical devices and the manner in which national and international manufacturing standards, such as those overseen by ANSI, ASTM or ISO, are created and regulated.

In addition to the practice areas highlighted above, Rick concentrates his practice to the following areas: supply chain compliance programs; customs audits; customs valuation; country of origin and marking matters; export regulation; Customs and international trade litigation; Food and Drug regulatory compliance; prior disclosure law; tariff classification; preferential duty programs; NAFTA; antidumping, countervailing duties; training in international trade subjects; trade policy and legislation; civil Customs enforcement; duty drawback; gray market/counterfeit imports; and anti-bribery compliance.