The 2023 NAFTZ Annual Conference & Exposition celebrating 50 years of NAFTZ at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel was an amazing event and experience.  If you couldn’t attend, we sure hope to see you in New Orleans at our annual conference next year – or any of the other events we have planned for 2024.

Special thanks to:

• The 450 members and non-members that were able to attend.  Your participation is what makes our annual conference special.
• The hard-working members of the Program Committee.  Throughout the year, the members of this committee put in many hours of work to pull together and present the high-quality program content we’re able to make available to attendees. 
• Our speakers and moderators.  These folks are kind enough to share their expertise and knowledge for the benefit of the FTZ community - no matter what organization, agency, or company they represent.
• Our sponsors and exhibitors.  We say it from the stage every year, and we mean it.  Without them, the conference simply would not be possible.  Our sponsors and exhibitors invest in the association and our annual conference not only to earn your business, but also to provide an exceptional experience for everyone in attendance.  Please see the list of conference sponsors and exhibitors and when you are in the market for their products and services, please give them the opportunity to earn your business.
• The NAFTZ Board and Staff.  Dedication and service.  Those two words sum up the heart of our board and staff.  Their efforts shine brightly when we gather at our association events.

Celebrating 5 decades of NAFTZ was certainly a highlight of the conference.  Hearing from those who have invested in our association in past years, and those that have been there from the beginning and the very early years was special indeed.  We thank them all for their time and dedication that brought us to where we are today.

I’d also like to highlight some of the items that we announced at conference:

New NAFTZ staff person:  If you haven’t heard already, we are pleased to announce a new position and new staff member effective September 1^st.  As the association continues to work towards executing our 5-year Advocacy Vision plan, we have added a new role “Director of Advocacy and Strategic Relations”.  I’m very happy to announce that long-time NAFTZ member and volunteer leader Melissa Irmen has been hired to fill this critical new position.  Melissa was involved in the development of the 5-year Advocacy Vision and Advocacy Issues Survey and as NAFTZ Board Chair and Immediate Past Chair, and will now oversee the implementation and execution of the vision and plan going forward.  We’re excited to have her knowledge and expertise on staff!

Launch of new FTZ Credential:  The Certified Zone Specialist.  The Certified Zone Specialist (CZS) is designed to educate trade professionals in the growing and evolving U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) industry. Whether you have a broker’s license, have just a year or two of related experience, or are getting started in an FTZ role, this course will provide you with a solid foundation for you to increase your industry knowledge.  The CZS coursework is aligned with NAFTZ’s Fundamentals content in a online learning format in cooperation with our friends at NCBFAA and their educational branch, NEI.  Watch for the launch announcement in the coming weeks.

New advocacy volunteer opportunities.  Tackling the many different advocacy issues, we have on our agenda with a singular committee has proven to be a challenge.  Part of our 5-year Advocacy vision implementation plan is to establish new working groups that will focus on certain advocacy issues.  It’s our hope and expectation that by dividing up the issues into these focused groups, that the association will be better positioned to continue to keep moving advocacy issues forward simultaneously.  Our initial sub-committees are planned to be as follows:

MANUFACTURING WORKING GROUP (Topics affecting the transformation of inputs to create a semi-/ finished commodity); DISTRIBUTION WORKING GROUP (Topics affecting a finished component admitted into a zone); ZONE OPERATIONS WORKING GROUP (Topics affected by adjustments/changes in U.S. trade policy and U.S. regulatory framework); PETROLEUM/ENERGY WORKING GROUP (Topics affecting the energy sector of the economy); and FTZ AWARENESS WORKING GROUP (Topics affecting the overall awareness and competitiveness of the FTZ program).  Keep an eye out for more details and how to join a sub-committee if interested. 

I could write many more pages about the great content and take-aways from this year’s Annual Conference, but will end this article here.  I sincerely hope that you will be able to join us at one of our in-person events in 2024.  

Jeffrey Tafel
NAFTZ President