Frank Schweitzer
Biography
Overview
Frank Schweitzer's practice focuses on international trade and investment law and policy, market access and regulatory matters, public international law, and international dispute resolution through litigation and arbitration.
Prior to rejoining White & Case, Frank was a partner at another leading global law firm. He represents clients in trade remedy proceedings and investigations before administrative agencies, in trade-related litigation and appeals before US courts, and in state-state trade disputes and investor-state arbitrations before international tribunals. His experience includes tariff and non-tariff market access matters, World Trade Organization counseling and dispute settlement, trade negotiations, and investment treaty arbitrations (ICSID and UNCITRAL). Frank counsels companies, industry associations, and sovereigns on matters arising under US trade laws, the WTO agreements, bilateral investment treaties, and trade and investment agreements (such as NAFTA and USMCA). His experience spans the full range of market access matters, including digital trade and cross-border data flow issues, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, intellectual property rights protections, national security proceedings, and trade controls. His industry experience is broad and includes consumer goods, steel, high technology sectors, energy and natural resources, pharmaceuticals, and financial services.
Frank also has government experience as a litigator, legal adviser, and treaty negotiator. From 2009–2013 Frank was associate general counsel in the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), Executive Office of the President. At USTR Frank was lead counsel for the United States in significant WTO litigation matters before dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body. He gained substantial experience with the interagency process for the development, implementation, and enforcement of US trade law and policy. He also served as USTR legal counsel in several trade agreement and investment treaty negotiations.
Experience
Trade Remedy Litigation
- Representing a global steel pipe and tube producer in multiple on-going trade remedy proceedings and investigations before the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission and in related litigation before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Market Access and Regulatory Matters
- Advising a life sciences company on various market access and regulatory issues, including related to: impediments to cross-border data flows; trade barriers and implications for new technology and medicine development; international rules relevant to medicine procurement; and export restraints on medicines.
World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement
- China – Certain Measures Affecting Electronic Payment Services (DS413) (Complainant: United States) (WT/DS413/R). Lead counsel for the United States in successful U.S. challenge to China's discriminatory measures affecting electronic payment services for card-based transactions in China, where the value of such transactions annually exceeds $1 trillion (the first WTO ruling to interpret the GATS Annex on Financial Services).
- EC and Certain Member States – Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft (DS316) (Complainant: United States) (WT/DS316/AB/R). Co-lead counsel for the United States in the WTO's longest appellate proceeding ever in which the Appellate Body upheld the panel finding of $18 billion in illegal European aircraft subsidies. The largest and among the most complex disputes ever litigated at the WTO.
- United States – Sunset Reviews of Antidumping Measures on OCTG from Argentina (DS268) (Complainant: Argentina). Counsel to Argentine steel company and assisted Argentina in dispute with the United States regarding antidumping measures on imports of oil country tubular goods. Proceeding involved nearly every aspect of WTO dispute settlement: panel proceeding (WT/DS268/R) and Appellate Body review (WT/DS268/AB/R); arbitration under DSU Article 21.3 to determine implementation period (WT/DS268/12); compliance panel proceeding under DSU Article 21.5 (WT/DS268/RW); appeal of compliance panel report (WT/DS268/AB/RW); and arbitration proceeding under DSU Article 22.6 to determine the level of suspension of concessions and other obligations (i.e., retaliation). Successful resolution of case for client with the retroactive revocation of the order on Argentine OCTG.
- United States – Antidumping Measures on Cement from Mexico (DS281) (Complainant: Mexico). Counsel to Mexican cement producer and assisted Mexico in dispute with the United States regarding a broad range of antidumping measures on cement imports. Dispute involved multiple trade remedy investigations, and administrative, sunset, and changed circumstances reviews. Among the largest trade remedy disputes ever litigated at the WTO, which matter ultimately settled on terms very favorable to client.
- United States – Antidumping Measures on Oil Country Tubular Goods from Mexico (DS282) (Complainant: Mexico). Counsel to a Mexican producer of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and assisted Mexico in dispute with the United States regarding the continuation of antidumping measures on Mexican OCTG imports. Dispute included a panel proceeding (WT/DS282/R) and Appellate Body review (WT/DS282/AB/R), and a compliance panel proceeding. Successful resolution of case for client with the retroactive revocation of the U.S. antidumping order on Mexican OCTG.
- Japan – Measures Affecting Consumer Photographic Film and Paper (DS44) (Complainant: United States). Counsel to U.S. manufacturer in connection with all phases of the United States case against Japan regarding various market access barriers to the Japanese consumer photographic film market (WT/DS44/R).
Investment Treaty and Investor-State Arbitration
- Orascom TMT Investments S.à.r.l. v. People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, ICSID Case No. ARB/12/35: Represented a Luxembourg telecommunications company in an ICSID arbitration arising under the Belgium/Luxembourg-Algeria BIT concerning a dispute in the telecommunications industry.
State-to-State Arbitration
- Republic of Ecuador v. United States of America, PCA Case No. 2012-5 (state to state arbitration under the U.S.-Ecuador BIT) (USTR lawyer assisting the State Department team in defense of the United States in first state-to-state arbitration under a U.S. BIT).
Investment Treaty Negotiations
- USTR lawyer for: 14 rounds of the negotiations of the investment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement; several rounds of the U.S.-China BIT negotiations; and the 2009-2012 U.S. government review of the model used for negotiating U.S. BITs and investment protections in trade agreements that resulted in the 2012 U.S. Model BIT.
International Trade Litigation
- United States v. Eurodif S.A., et al., 555 U.S. 305 (2009) (Counsel to amicus curiae in U.S. Supreme Court case involving the application of U.S. antidumping law to imports of low enriched uranium).
Council on Foreign Relations, trade policy event, panelist, November 2023
"US trade policy: From Trump to Biden," webinar, panelist, March 21, 2021
36th Annual Conference on U.S.-Turkey Relations, Washington, DC, speaker on U.S. trade policy panel, May 22, 2017
White & Case Tokyo Executive Forum, January 25, 2017, speaker on panel on the U.S. agenda for international trade
Webinar, U.S. trade policy under the new administration, presenter, January 19, 2017
"International Arbitration of Cross-Border Commercial Disputes and Foreign Investment Disputes": Global Offset and Countertrade Association (GOCA) May 2013 Spring Conference
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and the Next Generation of International Rules Governing Cross-Border Data Flows and Digital Trade – Part I, The Global Trade Law Journal, Vol.1, No. 2, March-April 2024 (co-author)
"The Role of the US Trade Representative and the Legal Framework for Formulation of US Trade Policy," Client Alert, March 4, 2021 (co-author)
"Using Data to Combat COVID-19," Client Alert, April 10, 2020 (co-author)
Services Priorities for a Future U.S.-UK Trade Agreement, Report published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, November 2019 (co-author)
Our Most Important Exports: The Values Behind US Trade Agreements and the WTO, Law360, November 27, 2016
Growing Global Protectionism and the World Trade Organization (WTO): The WTO as Regulator of the National Regulators, Global Government Solutions 2014 Annual Outlook, February 2014
The Outlook for International Trade Negotiations in 2014: Ambitious and Potentially Historic, Global Government Solutions 2014 Annual Outlook, February 2014
Investing in Africa BIT by BIT, Law360, August 23, 2013
A Primer on WTO Dispute Settlement, Law360, July 2, 2013
Of Waves and Sunsets: Reflections on the Likelihood Determination in Department of Commerce Five-Year Review, International Trade Law Update, 2005 (co-author)
Flash of the Titans: A Picture of Section 301 in the Dispute Between Kodak and Fuji and a View Toward Dismantling Anticompetitive Practices in the Japanese Distribution System, 11 American University International Law Review, 847 (1996)
