Bert Gevers – World Trade Controls

Bert Gevers has 9 articles published.

Bert is a partner of the Brussels office, he heads the Loyens & Loeff Indirect tax group in Brussels and co-chairs the firm’s International Trade Group. He advises clients on matters related to international and domestic exchange of goods and services. Matters such as export controls and sanctions, FTA's, customs valuation, origin, classification, excise duties and VAT are familiar parts of my practice. He is also co-heading the Food & Beverages team and he is a core member of the firm's Corporate Investigation Team. Bert assists clients by drafting compliance programmes, giving trainings, as well as in performing internal scans and audits. He also represent clients before the Belgian and Dutch authorities and courts as well as before the European Commission, its advisory committees and the Court of Justice of the European Union. He has ample experience in counselling clients involved in (criminal) investigations on suspected tax and trade law violations. He is a member of the Brussels Bar since 2000, the current President of the Global Legal Customs Association, a global network of trade-lawyers, a correspondent for the international VAT Club, a member of the ICC section on Customs and trade facilitation and the sub-committee on indirect taxes and a member of the steering committee of the ABA International Law Section on sanctions and export controls. He is the co-founder and scientific coordinator of the blog www.worldtradecontrols.com in cooperation with ICC Belgium, VBO/FEB and Bryan Cave LLP where he comments the recent developments in sanctions and export controls.

Meet OFAC in Brussels and discuss the disruption of export control & sanction regimes by new technologies on 11 June 2018

The combination of innovation and digitization causes severe disruption to existing controls and regimes. New technologies have potential to disrupt if not evade traditional export control regimes and create significant challenges for businesses and regulators alike. Keep Reading

Opposites attract: linking HS and ECN classification

On 16 January 2017, the European Commission published its latest update of the TARIC CN-DU Correlation Table which establishes links between the customs classification codes (HS/CN) and export control classification codes (ECN). By Bert Gevers, Yassine el Bojaddaini & Megan Gajewski Barnhill , 21 February 2017. As this correlation table sometimes confuses exporters when determining whether an item is controlled for… Keep Reading

Modernization of the EU export control system: What’s next? (I)

In this first post on a new series, we will discuss the most debated topic of the proposal thus far, which is the establishment of specific human rights based controls on cyber-surveillance technologies. By Bert Gevers, Megan Gajewski Barnhill & Jochen Vankerckhoven, 28 October 2016. On 28 September 2016 the EU Commission published its proposal for a modernization of the EU export… Keep Reading

EU Commission publishes its proposal for the recast of the Dual-Use Regulation

The European Commission published its long debated proposal for the recast of the Dual-Use Regulation. By Olivier Coulon, Bert Gevers & Gerard Kreijen, 29 September 2016 The proposal, which remains close to the draft that was leaked earlier in July, sets out important changes, likely to impact EU businesses. Keep Reading

Tipping the Scales: Balancing US Trade Controls’ Restrictions on Access with EU Labor and Privacy Rules (II)

In last week’s post, we discussed the US trade controls’ restrictions on access to controlled technical information. As a consequence of these restrictions, European employers may be required to communicate the names, nationality and potentially other information on their employees who will have access to such technical information. By Marga Caprioni, Stéphanie De Smedt and Bert Gevers, 20 September 2016 Keep Reading

Linking trade control compliance and customs compliance programs

With the introduction of the new Union Customs Code (UCC) on 1 May 2016, the status of Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) became the cornerstone of the revised customs legislation in the EU. By Bert Gevers, Jack Nuijten and Yassine El Bojaddaini This concept of certified traders was first introduced in the EU in 2008 in order to enhance international supply… Keep Reading

Trade controls and M&A: how to preserve the value of your transaction?

The substantial risk associated with the expansion and enhanced enforcement of trade controls has a direct impact on due diligence in cross-border M&A transactions Non-compliance by the target with international trade laws and regulations may not only have a material adverse impact on the value of the transaction, it may also trigger the vendor and even buyer’s liability, and affect… Keep Reading

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