Trade Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions

One of the biggest concerns for companies in mergers and acquisitions is successor liability, but many companies overlook trade compliance when conducting due diligence.  Evaluation of potential international trade compliance issues should be standard practice in corporate transactions. Even inadvertent violations of U.S. export controls, economic sanctions and customs laws can lead to significant fines and penalties; negatively impact share value; and impair government, investor and customer relations. Moreover, government agencies enforcing these laws now uniformly impose successor liability for past violations.