Trade Compliance Toolbox: A Jurisdiction and Classification Deep Dive

Candace Goforth

A highly respected advisor and industry expert in U.S. export laws and regulations, Candace brings more than 23 years of trade compliance experience to CE's Trade Advisory Services. Most recently, she was the Managing Director of Goforth Trade Advisors LLC, where she advised her U.S. and non-U.S. clients on the strategic application of U.S. import and export laws and regulations. She also wrote and developed much of Content Enablers’ trade compliance training content related to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Export Administration Regulations. Candace previously spent 15 years at the U.S. Department of State, advancing through the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls to become the Director for Defense Trade Controls Policy. During her government tenure, she held positions in all areas of licensing, compliance, and policy for defense trade.Candace has audited numerous organizations for compliance with U.S. regulations and laws. She has developed initial trade compliance programs for U.S. and non-U.S. organizations and assisted in internal implementation through training. Candace is particularly interested in non-U.S. compliance with U.S. regulations and laws.She is currently a member of the Defense Trade Advisory Group, which provides private sector insight to the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. She is also the Secretary/Treasurer for the Society for International Affairs, a volunteer, nonprofit, educational organization related to export and import licensing regimes of the Departments of State, Commerce, and the Treasury. A graduate of the George Washington University, Candace holds a master’s degree in security policy studies, with concentrations in international security policy, transnational security, and political psychology.

Tony Dearth

As President of Dearth Consulting, LLC, Tony provides expert advice and guidance in defense trade policy and regulatory interpretation to individual and corporate clients. He also has experience serving as a Special Compliance Officer for Department of State consent agreements.Tony retired from federal service at the Department of State in July 2019 with nearly 16 years of experience in the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. When he departed DDTC, he was the Chief of Staff responsible for all personnel, budget, contracting, and management activities for the entire 150-member Directorate and served as the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Principals in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Previously, as Director of Licensing, he was responsible for the actions of 56 personnel across four operational licensing divisions adjudicating all direct commercial sale export requests received under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.Tony is a retiree from the U.S. Air Force, where he served for 21 years across several positions in nuclear operations, command and control, and consequence management. His focus included systems engineering, policy formulation, procedure development, and arms control inspections. He graduated from the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Kansas State University in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and he earned a Master of Science in Systems Management in 1987 from the University of Southern California.

Bruce O‘Cain

Bruce is the owner of O’Cain Consulting, LLC in Great Falls, Virginia, which provides guidance to companies in complying with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Export Administration Regulations. Bruce specializes in license applications, commodity jurisdictions and classifications, and shepherding licenses through the U.S. government interagency process.Bruce has well over 40 years of combined military and government civilian experience in national and regional security, export controls, and technology transfer. He served 28 years in the U.S. Air Force in a wide variety of jobs and responsibilities, including as a graduate assistant researcher for the Strategic Defense Initiative, where he designed satellite sensors, and later working for the Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs.Prior to opening his consultancy, Bruce spent more than 13 years at the Defense Technology Security Administration, during which he served in regional policy as a desk officer, with South Asia, Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas in his portfolio at various times. He also served as the Department of Defense Night Vision Policy Lead, establishing standard performance parameters for exports, and as a Senior Licensing Officer and Air Team Lead in the Licensing Directorate. He is an acknowledged regulatory expert for the ITAR and EAR and has advised hundreds of U.S. exporters on writing export license applications and performing proper orders of review in accordance with these regulations.