ITFA – Introducing the Speakers in Barcelona – Grant Eldred

The ITFA is delighted to announce that Grant Eldred, the Head of the Finance Group at Thomas Cooper, will be addressing the ITFA’s Annual Conference again this year.

At last year’s Conference Grant spoke generally about sanctions regimes around the world and their legal impact on global trade finance. This year he will concentrate on the two sanctions regimes which are having the greatest impact on our members: Russia and Iran.

The Joint Plan of Action agreed with Iran by E3+3, which led to temporary limited sanctions relief expired on 20 July 2014. The E3+3 and Iran have agreed to extend the Joint Plan of Action to 24 November 2014 and the limited sanctions relief will continue. Grant will be updating and commenting on the sanctions regimes applicable at the time of the conference.

In particular Grant notes “……..the success of diplomatic negotiations is often inversely proportional to the number of comments leaked to the press. There have been very few (if any) leaks from the current negotiations. Even though no agreement was reached by the 20 July deadline, the willingness of the parties to extend the JPoA until 24 November 2014 may well indicate the parties genuinely anticipate progress by then.”

Although a much narrower regime when it was first introduced, it seems inevitable that the recent tragic events in the Ukraine are likely to drive a widening of the regimes both from the US and the EU. Grant will be reviewing and updating us on the breadth and depth of those applicable sanctions at the time of the conference.

Grant Eldred is the Head of the Finance Group at Thomas Cooper LLP. He qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and became a partner at Thomas Cooper in 1994. Grant specialises in banking law including bilateral and syndicated secured and unsecured lending, trade finance and banking regulation and compliance. Grant has particular expertise in trade finance and advising the London branches of overseas banks on their operational, regulatory and transactional requirements.

Grant is a member of the China-Britain Business Council, the Baltic Exchange and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights. He regularly lectures on a variety of finance related topics (including the enforcement of international sanctions).

The ITFA conference will be held this year in Barcelona between the 10th to the 12th September 2014.

To ensure your name is included on the Delegate list, please register before Friday 25th July 2014. To review the programme, find out more information and to register online, please click here https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/84379.