Anandarajah heads the Competition & Antitrust and Trade Practice. A clear forerunner in niche areas of the law, her key practice areas are Competition (merger control, cartels, investigations, etc), Trade (export controls, FTAs, sanctions etc), and Consumer Protection. She has strong secondary practices in Employment, Environmental (EHS) & Sustainability (ESG), Corporate Governance and Telco/Media Laws just because of her long career in the law, where she has formidable accolades. Anandarajah is recognized in Chambers Global for Trade, which notes that she is a “business-focused and client-oriented attorney who balances her expertise with practical experience”.
On export control, dual use goods and strategic goods, which is a key area of the Practice, Anandarajah’s work includes advisory, structuring, export and import permit applications and clearances, licence applications, and defense work where there are breaches with licensing requirements, EUSes, classification issues and more. Breaches in relation to classification and hence ROO/COO violations have grown. The export control work goes beyond dual use and military goods, and cuts across all controlled goods, including health and medical products, cosmetics, food and beverages, electronic products and more. On sanctions, Anandarajah has had to advise on complex transactions, reviewing not just UNSC based transactions, whether on countries, entities or individuals, but also deal with secondary sanctions and blocking statues. Dealing with secondary sanctions is a ley area.
On trade agreements, she has advised extensive on FTAs (including advising on the TPP, AEC and other trade treaties). Her work has spanned providing feedback on FTAs being negotiated, setting up business and structuring logistics flows to benefit from RTAs and FTAs. This extends to advising extensively on ROOs and COOs, whilst meandering the different ROO under different FTAs, and advising on how best to benefit from preferential treatment and supply chain management. On trade investigations and other trade non-compliance, Anandarajah has also been involved in matters relating to non-compliance with FTAs, managing issues for clients, and dealing with customs authorities, working voluntary disclosure programmes or other defences and has had many successful wins. She also advises regularly on anti-dumping and safe-guard matters. Her work also involves dealing with product liability and recall issues amongst others. Additionally, Anandarajah has also conducted extensive training on competition policy, WTO and FTA and other trade related issues across ASEAN countries for regulators to enhance trade understanding, including in relation to working with ITIS and others in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam, amongst other countries, as they looked to achieve LDC and WTO status 20 years ago.
