Ms. Rifkin practices in customs and international trade law, with a special emphasis on food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices. She is the leader of Benjamin L. England’s Customs, Trade and Litigation Team, and regularly represents clients before U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC).
With over 20 years of experience in the customs and trade area, Ms. Rifkin has specialized expertise in the area of forced labor, and has successfully aided foreign producers in obtaining the lifting of Withhold Release Orders (WRO) and Findings issued by CBP. She also provides assistance to importers in the forced labor area, including detentions of goods pursuant to WROs, compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and forced labor supply chain due diligence.
In addition to her forced labor expertise, Ms. Rifkin provides guidance on all other aspects of the import and export process, including tariff classification and valuation of imported merchandise, country of origin determinations, country of origin marking, USMCA and other free trade agreements, Customs penalties, antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, and intellectual property issues. She routinely assists clients with prior disclosures of violations, mitigation of liquidated damages and penalties, protests, requests for binding rulings, and antidumping and countervailing duty scope ruling requests. Ms. Rifkin has also litigated cases before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and has obtained a number of favorable decisions for her clients, including decisions overturning adverse classification determinations by CBP and adverse scope rulings issued by the DOC.
