Brian Cacic

Paul Burns has over 30 years of experience advising clients on all aspects of international trade and commodity tax, including significant experience advising on Canadian customs and export control matters. Paul has assisted multinational corporations on a multitude of trade matters, including valuation, tariff classification, rules of origin, marking, standards, remissions and drawbacks; anti-dumping and subsidies; export and import controls; trade sanctions; blocking measures; the Controlled Goods Program; free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax. He has advised and assisted with audits (both internal and by regulatory authorities), the development of customs strategies and compliance programs, and appealing unfavorable determinations by governmental authorities, including appeals before the Anti-dumping Tribunal, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal and Binational Panels established under the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, as well as NAFTA.

http://www.bakermckenzie.com/SunnyMann

Sunny Mann

Sunny Mann is a Partner in the Compliance & Investigations Group of Baker & McKenzie’s London office. He has also worked in our Firm’s Washington DC,New York and Sydney offices. He advises clients on compliance with respect to international trade and anti-bribery rules. He has advised numerous FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 clients on general compliance, risk assessments, systems and controls, training, audits, as well as government investigations and disclosures. He also spent 9 months working on secondment with a major UK mobile network operator and a further 3 months on secondment with a major manufacturer of high-tech consumer goods. The Legal 500 described Sunny as “highly rated” and “‘excellent’, with a ‘calm’ and ‘very practical’ approach”. He is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges), the leading institute for post-graduate European studies, where he teaches a Masters course on corporate compliance.

Brian Cacic focuses his practice primarily on the area of Canadian customs, trade sanctions, and export controls. He has worked on numerous customs issues, including customs valuation, tariff classification, rules of origin, marking, remissions and drawbacks, anti-dumping and subsidies. He has also advised clients on the application of Canadian export controls to dual-use items, particularly items containing cryptography, as well as nuclear devices and materials, military goods, and missile control and avionics equipment. He has also advised extensively on the application of Canadian trade sanctions to business activities involving Iran, Syria, and Libya. In addition, Brian advises on Canadian commodity tax issues and regulatory compliance issues in the areas of food and drugs, telecommunications and radio communications, and environmental product stewardship.

http://www.bakermckenzie.com/LiseTest

Lise S. Test

Ms. Test advices clients on issues relating to licensing, regulatory interpretations, enforcement actions, internal investigations and compliance audits, as well as the design, implementation and administration of compliance programs. She also advises clients on the extra-territorial application of trade compliance-related regulations in cross-border transactions.

Daniel Andreeff

Daniel Andreeff’s practice focuses on US economic and trade sanctions, including those targeting Iran, Russia, Cuba, Syria, and North Korea, export controls, and anti-boycott laws. He represents clients in national security reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and has experience in federal court litigation and congressional investigations. His pro bono practice includes providing sanctions and export control advice to a global humanitarian NGO.

https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/people/a/andreeff-daniel

Canada Expands its Sanctions against Russia for Continued Involvement in the Ukraine Conflict

March 28, 2019 by Paul D. Burns, Brian Cacic and Quentin Vander Schueren

On March 14, 2019, Canada announced a new round of targeted sanctions against Russia for its continued involvement in Ukraine, adding 114 individuals and 15 entities to its Russia and Ukraine sanctions regulations.

Canada has cited Russia’s involvement and escalation in the Kerch Strait – an important transit point for ships en route to major Ukrainian export terminals – as a reason for the new sanctions.

The new individuals and entities are added to “Schedule 1” of the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations and the
“Schedule” to the Special Economic Measures (Ukraine) Regulations, which makes them “designated persons” subject to the strictest prohibitions under Canadian sanctions law. The sanctions impose asset freezes and dealings prohibitions on designated persons, whereby Canadian individuals and corporations are broadly prohibited from engaging in substantially all trading activities or transactions related to a designated person or property held by a designated person. More specifically, it is prohibited for any person in Canada and any Canadian outside Canada to:

(a) deal in any property, wherever situated, held by or on behalf of a designated person;

(b) enter into or facilitate, directly or indirectly, any transaction related to a dealing referred to in paragraph (a);

(d) make any goods, wherever situated, available to a designated person; or

(e) provide any financial or related service to or for the benefit of a designated person.

Canadian persons, in or outside of Canada, that conduct business with Russia should review this expanded list and ensure they are not engaging in any prohibited activities under Canada’s sanctions regulations. The lists of newly sanctioned individuals and entities are available in the Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations and Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Ukraine) Regulations.

https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/people/v/vander-schueren-quentin

Quentin Vander Schueren

Quentin focuses his practice on Canadian and international trade law matters, including Canadian customs, trade remedies, export controls, Canadian economic sanctions, free trade agreements – such as NAFTA, CPTPP and CETA – product regulations, and other issues impacting the cross-border movement of goods. Quentin helps international and domestic clients design optimal strategies for cross-border trade through duties relief, tariff classification, value for duty assessments, advance rulings, rules of origin and tariff preferences. Quentin also represents clients in trade compliance verifications or audits by the Canadian Customs authorities (the Canada Border Services Agency), as well as trade remedy inquiries and customs appeal proceedings before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT). Quentin currently serves as Vice-Chair of the International Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association. He is also a member of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters and the Canadian Society of Customs Brokers (CSCB), among others. Quentin is fluent in French.

Canada moves quickly on corruption and human rights sanctions

November 8, 2017 by Paul D. Burns, Brian Cacic and Erica Lindberg

On October 18, 2017, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) (the “Act”) entered into force. The Act gives Canada the ability to impose unilateral sanctions against “foreign nationals” who are involved in corruption or gross violations of human rights.

For years, the Special Economic Measures Act (“SEMA”) has been the primary mechanism by which the Government of Canada (the “Government”) could impose unilateral sanctions against certain individuals and entities. Under SEMA, unilateral sanctions could only be imposed where the Government was of the opinion that a grave breach of international peace and security had occurred that had resulted or was likely to result in a serious international crisis.

The Act broadens the ability of the Government to impose sanctions by specifically identifying the following circumstances:

(a) a foreign national is responsible for, or complicit in, extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals in any foreign state who seek

(i) to expose illegal activity carried out by foreign public officials, or

(ii) to obtain, exercise, defend or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms, such as freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the right to a fair trial and democratic elections;

(b) a foreign national acts as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign state in a matter relating to an activity described in paragraph (a);

(c) a foreign national, who is a foreign public official or an associate of such an official, is responsible for or complicit in ordering, controlling or otherwise directing acts of corruption — including bribery, the misappropriation of private or public assets for personal gain, the transfer of the proceeds of corruption to foreign states or any act of corruption related to expropriation, government contracts or the extraction of natural resources — which amount to acts of significant corruption when taking into consideration, among other things, their impact, the amounts involved, the foreign national’s influence or position of authority or the complicity of the government of the foreign state in question in the acts; or

(d) a foreign national has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, an activity described in paragraph (c).

“Foreign national” is defined broadly to mean an individual who is not (a) a Canadian citizen; or (b) a permanent resident under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Just over two weeks after the Act came into force, on November 3, 2017, the Government issued the first set of sanctions under the Act through the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Regulations (the “Regulations”). The Schedule to the Regulations lists 52 foreign nationals from Russia, Venezuela and South Sudan that the Government has identified as being “responsible for, or complicit in, gross violations of internationally recognized human rights or acts of significant corruption.” Listed foreign nationals can be found here.

The Regulations, by reference to the Act, prohibit with respect to listed foreign nationals the following:

(a) the dealing, directly or indirectly, by any person in Canada or Canadian outside Canada in any property, wherever situated, of the foreign national;

(b) the entering into or facilitating, directly or indirectly, by any person in Canada or Canadian outside Canada, of any financial transaction related to a dealing referred to in paragraph (a); and

(c) the provision by any person in Canada or Canadian outside Canada of financial services or any other services to, for the benefit of or on the direction or order of the foreign national;

(d) the acquisition by any person in Canada or Canadian outside Canada of financial services or any other services for the benefit of or on the direction or order of the foreign national; and

(e) the making available by any person in Canada or Canadian outside Canada of any property, wherever situated, to the foreign national or to a person acting on behalf of the foreign national.

All of the prohibitions above apply to any “person in Canada or Canadian outside Canada”. The Act defines “person” to mean “an individual or an entity”. “Canadian” is defined to mean “a person who is a citizen within the meaning of the Citizenship Act or a corporation incorporated or continued by or under the laws of Canada or of a province.”

Global Affairs Canada, the federal agency tasked with administering Canada’s sanctions regime, has published Backgrounders on its website for each of Russia, Venezuela and South Sudan, identifying the listed foreign nationals that are associated with each country, and the reasons for imposing the sanctions.

More information on the Act, the Regulations and the Backgrounders can be found here.

http://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/people/l/lindberg-erica/

Erica Lindberg

Canada names additional Crimean individuals as designated persons

December 1, 2016 by Paul D. Burns, Brian Cacic and Erica Lindberg

On November 28, 2016, the Government of Canada further expanded its sanctions against the Crimea region of Ukraine, which are contained in the Special Economic Measures (Ukraine) Regulations (the “Regulations”) made pursuant to the Special Economic Measures Act.

The amendments add 15 additional individuals to the list of designated persons in Schedule 1 of the Regulations. The newly designated persons include six members of Russia’s State Duma from Crimea. According to a Global Affairs Canada media release, the amendments have been made in response to the September 18, 2016 election of those officials residing in Crimea to Russia’s State Duma, as the Government of Canada does not support the legitimacy or outcome of those elections.

Under the Regulations, persons in Canada and Canadians outside Canada are subject to a number of prohibitions on dealings with designated persons as well as disclosure requirements with regard to certain property or information related to designated persons.

An unofficial copy of the amendments can be found here.