Carrie L. Owens

Carrie Owens brings over two decades of experience at the intersection of international trade, customs enforcement, and national security, to advise clients on some of the most complex issues in trade law and policy. She has served in senior leadership positions across the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), where she directed enforcement operations, led intelligence initiatives, assisted US businesses with leveraging U.S. import duty relief programs, and advised senior officials on trade facilitation initiatives that shaped U.S. trade policy and practice.

While serving at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Carrie served as Director of Enforcement Operations in the Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate. She designed and implemented the government’s investigative procedures under the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA), which has to date identified over $2 billion in unpaid duties and protected U.S. industries from unfair trade practices. Her division innovated effective approaches to quickly identify illicit trade, particularly transshipped merchandise, which have now been widely adopted across CBP. She also oversaw customs broker licensing, and cargo targeting, while coordinating closely with other agencies and international partners. She also served as Chief of the Entry Process and Duty Refunds Branch in CBP’s Office of Trade’s Regulations and Rulings Directorate, providing critical oversight and legal guidance for the agency’s key trade initiatives. Her branch rendered binding legal determinations on some of the most challenging subjects in customs law, including entry procedures, duty drawback, foreign trade zones, bonding of entries, fees, protest procedures, broker compliance, application of trade remedies, and liquidation procedures. 

Most recently while at DHS Headquarters, Carrie played a central role in building the economic security intelligence mission, providing strategic analysis on illicit trade, duty evasion, forced labor, counterfeit goods, critical minerals, and supply chain resilience. As Deputy Director of the Economic Security Mission Center, she worked with senior policymakers, private industry, and state and local governments to anticipate emerging threats, including pandemic-related shortages and supply chain crises. She also led DHS engagement with the private sector, developing innovative frameworks for collaboration with more than 75 companies and trade associations across U.S. industries.

Earlier in her career, Carrie served as a senior attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel for Import Administration (now Enforcement and Compliance) at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she advised on more than 30 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations. In that role, she defended the U.S. Government in litigation before U.S. courts, NAFTA dispute panels, and the World Trade Organization. Carrie was the lead attorney in the groundbreaking investigation into China’s subsidies of its industries, where she developed the legal theory that overturned more than 20 years of agency practice and enabled the U.S. to apply countervailing duties against China for the first time. She defended this novel approach in U.S. federal courts and at the WTO, achieving outcomes that continue to influence trade enforcement today. Before her government service, Carrie began her career as an associate at an international law firm, representing governments, importers, and manufacturers in trade remedy disputes.

Carrie has been widely recognized for her leadership and service, including the Attorney of the Year Award from the Department of Commerce, the CBP Commissioner’s Award for Trade Facilitation, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Meritorious Unit Citation for advancing the intelligence community’s economic security mission. She is also a frequent speaker on trade, customs, and enforcement issues before Congress, international organizations, and industry forums.