DR. BREGT NATENS advises clients on European Union and international trade law and regulations, including on trade remedies, investment (FDI) controls, customs rules, market access, and regulatory barriers.
Bregt has significant experience representing clients in litigation before EU courts and EU Member State courts, and at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In particular, Bregt has been involved in over 25 cases before the Court of Justice of the EU in the areas of trade remedies, chemicals, and life sciences regulation, covering direct actions, interventions, references for preliminary rulings from national courts, appeals, and interim measure proceedings. He also regularly represents clients before EU and EU Member State authorities, such as the European Commission and customs authorities.
As part of his trade remedies work, Bregt has assisted clients in more than 15 anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, and safeguard cases in the EU and in third countries. His experience covers original investigations, expiry reviews, anti-circumvention cases, WTO compliance review proceedings, EU court implementation proceedings, and exemption reviews. Notably, Bregt has experience from the initial, administrative phase of trade remedies proceedings up until litigation before the highest EU court and the WTO Appellate Body.
A significant part of Bregt’s practice also concerns transactional support, where he assists clients in identifying and mitigating risks stemming from FDI controls. In that regard, he works on multi-jurisdictional and EU foreign direct investments screening reviews and filings.
Prior to joining Sidley, Bregt gained experience in the Legal Affairs Division of the WTO, assisting a panel in dispute settlement proceedings. He also was a doctoral researcher at Leuven University, where his research and teaching activities focused on various issues relating to EU and WTO law, with a particular focus on trade in services.
Bregt is a regular speaker at international conferences, and he frequently teaches EU and WTO law. His research has been published in leading journals, such as the Journal of International Economic Law, the Journal of World Trade and the European Law Journal. Bregt’s book on trade in services was published by Edward Elgar Publishing.