Overview

Carolyn B. Gleason heads the Firm’s Washington, DC Office and its Global Regulatory Practice Group and International Trade Practice, and serves as Co-Chair of the Firm’s Food, Beverage, and Agribusiness Industry Group.

Carolyn has extensive experience in all areas of trade relief, including US antidumping and countervailing duty procedures, and has successfully litigated a number of import-relief cases involving food and agriculture. She also has in-depth knowledge of dispute settlement proceedings under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO), and has served as government counsel and chief private sector counsel in numerous successful dispute settlement actions.

In addition to her trade cases, Carolyn represents clients in multilateral trade negotiations, free trade areas, and bilateral trade disputes. She counsels clients as well on agribusiness regulatory matters, all customs issues, food safety and phytosanitary disputes, and export assistance programs (including the Market Access Program, Foreign Market Development Cooperator Program, among others).

To support these trade actions and client matters, Carolyn advocates regularly before all US agencies involved in US trade policy and enforcement (White House, USTR, Commerce, USDA, State, and others). She also regularly advocates to the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over trade and to other Hill offices. She has substantial experience as a testifying panelist before Executive and Legislative bodies and the International Trade Commission on trade-related disputes, policy, negotiations, legislation, and other matters.

Carolyn has received, by invitation, a degree from the Japanese Business Study Program from the Institute of International Studies and Training in Japan.

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Results

Successfully led numerous trade remedy proceedings, several on behalf of US agribusiness interests
Led the trade team that is widely credited with having innovated, launched, and litigated the “Banana Wars” and with negotiating two major WTO agreements aimed at settling the case; this long-standing dispute has included 13 successful GATT and WTO actions and two successful settlement agreements
Represented and delivered positive negotiating results for agribusiness and other interests in virtually every major US bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiation for over three decades

Successfully represented a large agribusiness company in international arbitration over breach of contract and complex EU trade rules
Managed the policy dimensions of a major roll-out throughout Asia of a new-to-market agribusiness product
Successfully represented a leading global provider of computer services in achieving improved access to China’s market

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