John Larkin founded Larkin Trade International (LTI) in 2005 and has since grown the company into one of the leading providers of trade compliance consulting in China and the Asia Pacific region. Prior to founding LTI, John served at the US Embassy in Beijing as the Export Control Attaché and as a Commercial Officer. As the Export Control Attaché, John was the Bureau of Industry and Security representative in China and the US Government expert on dual-use export controls. As a Commercial Officer, John provided counseling to US companies on a range of trade issues in various high-tech industry sectors. Prior to his time at the US Embassy, John was a Special Agent, first with the US Customs Service in Los Angeles, then with the Dallas Field Office of the Bureau of Industry and Security, where he conducted administrative and criminal investigations related to valuation, intellectual property rights, antidumping, and export controls.

Paige Rivas is the Director of U.S. Government Relations at Larkin Trade International. Her portfolio includes trade advocacy, export controls, U.S. government relations, and China market access issues. She specializes in international trade regulations and compliance and advises clients operating globally on U.S., Hong Kong, and other export control regimes and Chinese standards development and regulations. She also serves as an advisor to AmCham China’s Export Compliance Working Group.

Ms. Rivas previously worked as a consultant and lobbyist at King & Spalding’s international trade practice in Washington DC. In this position, Ms. Rivas worked with American companies in the development and advocacy on legislative and regulatory trade issues before Congress and the Administration. Before joining King & Spalding, Ms. Rivas served as a Trade Fellow to the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade and advised committee members on policies related to trade and manufacturing.

Prior to that assignment, Ms. Rivas was the Senior Policy Advisor for the Assistant Secretary for Import Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this role she advised the Assistant Secretary on international trade policy, trade legislation, and antidumping and countervailing duty-related matters. She also participated in bilateral and multilateral negotiations of trade policy at the World Trade Organization and in the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement negotiations, including attending negotiating sessions in Seoul, Korea on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce.