Middle East Customs and Transfer Pricing Briefing

Laya Aoun-Hani is a counsel and senior member of the EMEA Baker McKenzie International Commercial & Trade Practice Group. With over 18 years of experience in the Middle East, Laya regularly advises multinational clients from different industries on regulatory matters, commercial transactions, multijurisdictional distribution and agency arrangements and restructurings, commercial disputes settlements, competition law, trade compliance, export controls, trade sanctions and customs matters. She is the Middle East co-lead for the Baker McKenzie Consumer Goods and Retail and the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry Groups. Laya has also extensive experience in the Telecommunications sector.
Laya trained at one of the largest law firms in Lebanon and one of the largest international law firms in London before she joined Baker McKenzie in Dubai in 2013. She was a lecturer and coordinator of a Business Law course for five years at the Faculty of Business at Antonine University in Lebanon. Laya is currently a lecturer in the continuous Legal Professional Development Program at the Dubai Legal Affairs Department and a regular speaker at Mecomed

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Tina is a partner in the Firm's Dubai office. She advises leading corporations and public entities on VAT and transaction taxes (such as Real Estate Transaction Tax). Tina works across all sectors however she has deep experience in advising indirect taxes relating to financial services, property and construction, energy and government sectors. In addition to advisory work, Tina assists clients with tax authority audits, disputes, applications for clarifications. She also represents industry associations before the central banks and tax authorities.

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Maha is an experienced attorney in the Firm’s Riyadh office. She focuses on corporate taxation of cross-border taxation and has extensive experience practicing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”). With over 10 years of experience, Maha has advised on tax matters across various sectors. She also has experience in developing tax policy and tax legislation in Saudi Arabia.

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Jukka Karjalainen is a partner in the London Tax Department of Baker McKenzie, and co-leads the UK Transfer Pricing practice as well as sits on the Firm's EMEA transfer pricing steering committee. He has 25 years of experience in dealing with transfer pricing and international corporate tax issues from both a private practice and an industry perspective, having spent time in-house at a multinational metals and mining corporation.

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Reggie Mezu is a Senior Special Counsel in Baker McKenzie’s Dubai office. He focuses on corporate tax and has practiced tax for nearly 30 years, including in the UAE for 15 years. He has multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary professional qualifications in law, accountancy and taxation.

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Folkert Mulder is a transfer pricing director, working primarily with the Amsterdam and United Arab Emirates tax teams. Folkert is currently the transfer pricing lead for the Middle East and North Africa. Folkert was recently seconded to Baker McKenzie's office in Chicago, and often collaborates with other Baker McKenzie teams, such as Brussels, Stockholm and Zurich. Folkert is also a member of Baker McKenzie's Reorganizations group, to contribute to transfer pricing design, implementation and valuation aspects of reorganizations. He has been involved with several major transfer pricing dispute resolution procedures both in the Netherlands and internationally.

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Jennifer Revis is a partner in Baker McKenzie's London office and co-leads our EMEA Customs Team.
Jennifer focuses her practice on the public regulation of international trade, particularly in a wide range of customs compliance issues. She regularly advises clients on import matters, including customs valuation, rules of origin, and classification. She has worked with clients designing and implementing their compliance programs, policies, procedures and risk assessments, and assisting them in customs audits. She has significant experience in managing global customs projects and disputes, particularly in the area of customs valuation (transfer pricing; assists; royalties). Jennifer also advises on FTAs and trade remedies matters.
Jennifer has been consistently recognised as a "Leading Individual" for Customs & Excise and “Next Generation Partner” for Trade, WTO Anti-Dumping And Customs. Clients describe her as "an outstanding customs lawyer and litigator with fantastic experience. She is also easy to work with and leads her team with aplomb", "without a doubt, one of the best customs lawyers in the business (…) with an exceptionally deep knowledge of customs valuation concepts, as well as considerable experience applying those concepts in a variety of jurisdictions."
Jennifer has been on secondment to the UK customs authorities (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) in their tax and excise litigation department and to the Firm's European Law Centre in Brussels.

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