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 http://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.
EU to control export of COVID-19 vaccines amid supply crisis
Belgium (finally) implements sanctions for violation of the EU Blocking Regulation
Meet OFAC in Brussels and discuss the disruption of export control & sanction regimes by new technologies on 11 June 2018
Opposites attract: linking HS and ECN classification
Modernization of the EU export control system: What’s next? (I)
Tipping the Scales: Balancing US Trade Controls’ Restrictions on Access with EU Labor and Privacy Rules (III)
EU Commission publishes its proposal for the recast of the Dual-Use Regulation
Tipping the Scales: Balancing US Trade Controls’ Restrictions on Access with EU Labor and Privacy Rules (II)
Linking trade control compliance and customs compliance programs
Trade controls and M&A: how to preserve the value of your transaction?