Yves Melin has 20 years of experience as an international trade and customs lawyer in Brussels; partner in Reed Smith LLP. He concentrates on trade remedies (anti-dumping measures, countervailing measures and safeguards re-balancing duties), customs laws and procedures, sanctions, export and import controls, and carbon trading and border adjustment. Yves has represented clients in more than 100 trade remedy investigations, and before the EU Courts in more than 30 disputes relating to international trade and customs laws, including in the landmark cases Ikea Wholesale (C-351/04), XinYi PV (T-586/14) and Jiangsu Seraphim (T-110/17) cases. He is part of the Reed Smith’s global environmental, social and governance (ESG) practice, with a particular focus on supply chain due diligence and the enforcement of environmental (carbon border adjustment, deforestation, etc.) and labour (anti-slavery, compliance with ILO conventions) standards for goods crossing the EU’s and the UK’s borders.
In the customs area, Yves helps clients reduce duty exposure through customs compliance programs, customs duty suspension filings, and customs litigation. Yves has been recommended by Best Lawyers in Belgium, Trade Law (2018-2023) and ranked in Chambers Legal and the Legal 500, Customs, Trade, WTO & Anti-Dumping (2013-2023).
Yves is also one of the founders of Greenlane, an alliance of European customs and international trade law firms. Greenlane consists of trade and customs lawyers located throughout Europe, as well as in the Americas and Asia.
Yves is a member of the Editorial Board of the Global Trade and Customs Journal (Kluwer), member of the steering committee of the Customs Law Academy of the University of Liège, and a lecturer on customs law in the Universities of Antwerp and Liège.