About What OCCIC Attorneys Do

The Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce (OCC-IC) provides legal support to the Department of Commerce on international commercial matters, particularly the Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA), including ITA’s three business units -- Enforcement and Compliance, Global Markets, and Industry and Analysis.  (Legal support for ITA’s Enforcement and Compliance is also provided by the Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance.) 

OCC-IC legal work focuses on supporting ITA in its work protecting the national security, promoting trade and investment, facilitating international data flows, fostering U.S. international competitiveness, reviewing foreign investment, and supporting U.S. companies doing business abroad. OCC-IC attorneys collaborate broadly within the Department, with colleagues at other agencies, and with foreign counterparts.  OCC-IC attorneys participate in the development and implementation of international trade, commercial, and investment policy at all stages, including negotiating and implementing international agreements. 

Highlights of our Work

Every day, OCC-IC attorneys address complex and novel legal issues in support of U.S. economic growth and global competitiveness.  Highlights of OCC-IC’s legal work include: 

• Reviewing and monitoring in-bound and outbound foreign investment to prevent threats to U.S. national security; 

• Implementing reciprocal trade agreements with key U.S. trading partners;

• Facilitating the international free flow of data through mechanisms like the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, and the Global Cross Border Privacy Rules;

• Promoting foreign investment in the United States and U.S. exports through the SelectUSA Initiative, trade shows, trade missions, and other trade promotion activities;

• Monitoring compliance with international trade and investment agreements to which the United States is a party;

• Interpreting and analyzing U.S. trade laws (except antidumping and countervailing duty laws);

• Implementing Title III of the Export Trading Company Act of 1982

• Supporting Advocacy for U.S. companies competing for foreign government procurements and projects;  and

• Assisting in the protection of U.S. intellectual property rights abroad.

Negotiation and Enforcement of Trade Agreements

OCC-IC actively participates in the negotiation, implementation, and enforcement of a variety of international agreements, including:

• Reciprocal trade and framework agreements;

• Bilateral and multilateral trade agreements (such as the World Trade Organization agreements and U.S. free trade agreements);

• International data flows arrangements.

Interpretation and Analysis of International Trade and Investment Law

OCC-IC advises the Department on laws, regulations, international agreements, and commercial practices in the United States and foreign countries affecting trade and investment, including those regarding:

• International investment,
• Privacy and other restrictions on the international transfer of data;
• Standards and regulatory practices,
• Intellectual property rights,
• Government procurement,
• Antitrust and competition policy,
• E-commerce and privacy,
• Trade finance,
• Foreign business practices,
• Customs and trade facilitation, and
• International dispute settlement.

Litigation

Where appropriate, OCC-IC works closely with the Department of Justice and other agencies with respect to litigation to which the U.S. government is a party or in which the U.S. government or the Department of Commerce may otherwise express a view.  OCC-IC also works with the Department of State and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on international dispute settlement as it affects U.S. commercial interests.