George W. Thompson specializes in export and import regulation and international business counseling, such as antidumping, countervailing duty and other trade remedies, Customs compliance, export controls, international sales contracts, and administrative and judicial litigation relating to these matters. Mr. Thompson has advised domestic and foreign corporations in myriad industries, including food and agriculture, automotive, furniture, software, chemicals, electronics, office and telecommunications products, aerospace, and consumer goods.

Mr. Thompson’s trade remedy practice involves representation of domestic, foreign and importing interests in trade remedy cases before the United States Commerce Department and International Trade Commission, as well as in judicial appeals of administrative determinations. He has assisted numerous importers and exporters in evaluating scope coverage of antidumping and countervailing duty orders. His Customs compliance practice involves representation in all aspects of customs laws and regulations, including classification, country of origin, free trade agreement and tariff preference qualification, valuation, intellectual property, penalty, entry, drawback, cargo security and foreign customs matters. Mr. Thompson has represented clients for all manner of product origin matters relating to government procurement, including Buy American Act, Buy America, Trade Agreements Act and Foreign Military Financing issues, as well as for Federal Trade Commission origin labeling requirements. He also provides client counseling on international contract and commercial issues.

Additionally, he provides a full range of export control representation to exporters and reexporters of merchandise concerning regulations administered by the Departments of State, Commerce and Treasury as well as enforcement activities by U.S. Customs. He has assisted companies of various sizes, from Fortune 500 listed to sole proprietorships, to establish, maintain and review their export compliance programs, and provides his clients with advice concerning transactional and organizational compliance with U.S. and foreign government export controls applicable to commodities and technology. Mr. Thompson’s State Department experience includes rendering United States Munitions List classification advice and submission of commodity jurisdiction requests, compliance counseling, preparation of license applications, agreements and technology control plans, and representation in disclosure and penalty proceedings. In Commerce Department matters, in addition to general counseling, he has assisted clients in establishing compliance and technology control plans and license preparation and provided representation in enforcement proceedings. He assists domestic and foreign companies in complying with Treasury Department sanctions on trading and financial activities.

From 1993 until 2014, Mr. Thompson was Of Counsel and thereafter Partner in a law firm that focused on international trade matters. He served in the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 1987 to 1993, where he participated in numerous unfair import investigations and represented the Commission in judicial proceedings throughout the United States. While in the government, he was selected to provide legal assistance to the United States Trade Representative, and represented the United States before the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Mr. Thompson, a 1981 graduate of Cornell Law School, is admitted to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia. He is an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, where he teaches courses on ABCs of Importing and Exporting, International Contract Negotiation and Export Controls and Compliance. He is the author of the book Transnational Contracts (Thomson Reuters), co-author of Intellectual Property Rights and United States International Trade Laws (Oceana Publications), Exporting: Regulations, Documentation, Procedures (Global Training Center) and International Ocean and Air Transportation (Global Training Center), and is a contributing author to Customs Law and Administration (Thomson Reuters). His law review articles include Political and Policy Dimensions of Foreign Trade Zones, 18 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (1985) (coauthor) and Judicial Review of International Trade Commission Determinations from October 1990 to September 1992, 25 Law & Policy in International Business (1993) (co-author).

Co-Authored Books:

• Exporting: Regulations, Documentation, Procedures
• Managing Freight Forwarders, Brokers & Carriers in Your Int’l Supply Chain
• Incoterms® 2020 for Importers and Exporters