International Trade Counseling and Agreements
International trade is growing in Cyprus. As an EU Member State, Cyprus operates based on a comprehensive and EU-aligned regulatory framework in terms of its exports and imports, including all laws and regulations for tariff rates, trade laws for goods and services (Trade in Services Agreement), commercial aspects of intellectual property, foreign direct investment, export and import policies, anti-dumping and countervailing measures.
Our law firm, with high commercial awareness and up to date and well-informed knowledge in all legal developments in international trade, assists our clients in their international trade dealings, preparing international trade agreements, advising and ensuring compliance with export and import restrictions, securing any special licenses for our clients for the import or export of special goods or services.
Furthermore, global trade is now taking seriously technology and aims to take full advantage of cutting-edge technologies that could make trade more efficient, less complex, more inclusive, and less costly. Emerging technologies can fundamentally change the way resources are allocated and international trade operates. There is no doubt that technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read container numbers and QR codes to identify and trace the shipment and basic digitization of trade documents have considerably improved the reliability and efficiency of international trade. But the disruption to international trade and the supply chain industry is yet to be seen. Emerging technologies such as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) as well as digital platform-based trading services are changing everything we know about global trade bringing solutions to the long-lasting issues of high costs, security, and transparency. For example, blockchain is being used to simplify the long and tedious process of obtaining a Letter of Credit (LoC), a payment mechanism used in international trade. AI and ML can be used to develop efficient trade shipping routes, maintenance and vessel tracking for smart port automated operations, and translate e-commerce search queries from one language into other languages and respond with a translated inventory. Digital platforms allow trading services online by connecting the customers with service providers.
Our team can help you with:
- Drafting, negotiation, and review of international trade agreements
- Advice on applicability and compliance with export and import control
- Advice on tariff rates and custom duties
- Secure licenses for specified goods and services
- Advice on the use of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in international shipping, trade, and supply chain
- Advice on the use of AI and ML in international shipping, trade, and supply chain
- Advice on and support with the setting of digital platform-based trading services
- Advice on digital identity and electronic signatures and the implementation of digital identity systems, digital signatures, and other trust services
- Advice on and drafting of software agreements
- Drafting of and reviewing cooperation and partnership agreements with technology companies
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