Organised by: International Trade Committee, Technology, Media and Telecommunications Committee
Session abstract:
- What is digital trade and how are our clients engaging with it? What does open trade mean in a digital world?
- What issues are our clients facing as trade becomes increasingly digitalised – both traditional trade issues such as border restrictions, and new issues such as data localisation requirements?
- Consideration of specific issues such as data flow regulation, and those that arise from trading using a digital system (as opposed to a manual system) where issues such as government confidentiality, electronic trading are not uniform.
Bryan Tan
Bryan is a partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons. He represents major internet and software companies as well as governments and government entities and has led many industry firsts and advised on the launch on many new products and services including e-commerce, e-payment services, games platforms.
For the last decade, Bryan has also been named as one of the leading individuals in IP, IT and telecoms law by Best Lawyers, Chambers, Legal500, Who’s Who and AsiaLaw. He was also a legal advisor to the ASEAN Single Window project since 2010 and is appointed to the UN working party on paperless trade facilitation in the Asia Pacific and has worked on laws for no less than eight countries in South East Asia and Asia-Pacific.
Speakers
Ryu Ishida
Ryu Ishida is a Japanese corporate lawyer and a litigator, partner of Commons Law Office. He represented many Japanese companies in numerous cases and have been advising both Japanese and foreign clients from various industries, including tech, securities,international media and aircraft industries. He handles both transactions and disputes in the areas of securities law, corporate governance, venture finance, M&A, anti-trust and competition law, personal data protection, employment law, and other commercial areas.
Kent Woo
Kent Woo is a partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm, Guangzhou Office and has considerable experience of practicing in cross border trade and investment, IP, and dispute resolution in China. Kent WOO represented many multinational corporations, large and medium sized included, which involves him in the creation of client specific strategies for entry into the China market and dealing with China market, including drafting and negotiating all aspects of contractual documentation from the setting up and operation of foreign invested companies, to the acquisition of Chinese enterprises, and to various trading arrangements.
Kala Anandarajah
Kala Anandarajah heads the Competition & Antitrust and Trade Practice and leads the Corporate Governance Practice. Always a forerunner in niche areas of the law, her key area of practice is Competition and Trade, areas which she has been involved in from inception. On Trade Law, Anandarajah has been involved in advising multinational corporations on trade agreements between governments, handled export and import permit applications and clearances involving strategic and various other regulated and prohibited goods, advises extensively on strategic and controlled goods, advised and assisted with voluntary disclosure programmes, dealt with product recall matters, advised and drafted warehousing and other logistics agreements and more. She also advises regularly on anti-dumping matters, and further has had to advised on the TPP, AEC and other trade treaties.
She is experienced in managing the advisory process in multiple stakeholder scenarios where the deliverables will have significant impact on trade. Additionally, Anandarajah has also conducted extensive training on competition policy, WTO and FTA and other trade related issues across ASEAN countries for regulators to enhance trade understanding, including in relation to working with ITIS and other bodies in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam, amongst other countries. She advises multinational corporations plus local companies across the region. She is perhaps the only Singapore lawyer cited as a leading Trade lawyer by international legal ranking journals. The practice she leads has recently been cited as a Band 1 practice for South East Asia Trade / WTO by Chambers Asia Pacific
Caroline Berube
Caroline Berube is the Managing Partner of HJM Asia Law (with offices in China and Singapore). She is admitted to the New York Bar and the Singapore Bar and holds a BCL (civil law) and an LL.B. (common law) from McGill University in Montreal (Canada). She studied Chinese law at the National University of Singapore in 1998/1999. Caroline has been working in Asia for 20 years with SMEs, MNCs and foreign banks/Private equity firms, advising them in the field of M&A and intellectual property. With an extensive presence on the ground in Asia, Caroline is well versed in the opportunities and risks associated in China and many other Asia jurisdictions.
Caroline is also the author of a book “Doing Business in China” published by Lexis Nexis.
Alvin Tan
Alvin Tan holds a Juris Doctor in Law and a Bachelor of Business Management from the Singapore Management University. As part of the Competition & Antitrust and Trade Practice, Alvin’s main areas of practice include advising on trade- and on competition-related matters, including compliance and training to in-house counsel. On trade, he regularly assists on issues such as licensing and import / export requirements including but not limited to strategic goods and controlled goods. He has also advised on on voluntary disclosure programmes, and increasingly on FTAs and preferential treatment. He also advises extensively on environmental compliance issues in Singapore. Alvin has assisted clients on a wide range of corporate commercial matters involving the preparation of contractual documents tailored to the clients’ individual needs including shareholder agreements, subscription agreements, joint venture agreements, sale and purchase agreements, collaboration agreements, services agreements, non-disclosure agreements, etc.
Alvin has also assisted clients on a wide range of corporate commercial matters involving the preparation of contractual documents tailored to the clients’ individual needs including shareholder agreements, subscription agreements, joint venture agreements, sale and purchase agreements, collaboration agreements, services agreements, non-disclosure agreements, etc. He also regularly advises companies on employment law, advising matters such as termination, redundancy, incentive schemes, employment contracts as well as on issues / policies on discipline and conduct and whistle-blowing.