As we head into the 2023 Annual Conference & Exposition and celebrate 5 decades of NAFTZ, we continue to move forward with elements of our 5-year Advocacy Vision and plan.  The Advocacy Committee has been busy formulating the restructuring of the way the Committee will be structured going forward.  In addition, we haven’t let up with our efforts to establish more visibility and presence on Capitol Hill.  I’ll share a little more about these two areas.

One of the key elements of our plan to become a trusted source of FTZ information on the hill is our new Virtual Fly-Ins, scheduled to be held twice per year and as needed when issues are actively being discussed in the legislature.  Our first Virtual Fly-In was held in July with a few meetings being held in early August.  If you live in a state where we scheduled meetings, members were asked to participate – even if they did nothing more than sit in and introduce themselves.  The results of our Fly-Ins are good for our first event:

Summer 2023 NAFTZ Virtual Fly-In

• 14 meetings held
• 142 participants
• 10 average members participating per call

Meetings were held with key congressional staff members from the following offices:

• Representative David Kustoff (R) Tennessee, 7 participants
• Representative Suzan DelBene (D) Washington, 13 participants
• Senator Mark Warner (D) Virginia, 14 participants
• Senator Tim Scott (R) South Carolina, 12 participants
• Representative Ron Estes (R) Kansas, 7 participants
• Representative Terri Sewell (D) Alabama, 7 participants
• Senator Maggie Hassan (D) New Hampshire, 7 participants
• Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D) Nevada, 11 participants
• Representative Lloyd Smucker (R) Pennsylvania, 11 participants
• Senator Sherrod Brown (D) Ohio, 10 participants
• Representative Brian Higgins (D) New York, 11 participants
• Representative Greg Murphy (R) North Carolina, 10 participants
• Senator Robert (Bob) Menendez (D) New Jersey, 10 participants
• Senator Marsha Blackburn (R) Tennessee, 12 participants

Meetings focused on either introducing the members’ trade staff to FTZs, or details of current issues and potential legislation depending on the needs of the office we were meeting with.  As our Section 321 de minimis efforts with the Ship Safe Coalition continue to gain momentum, we’ll host our fall Virtual Fly-In in October/November and schedule additional in-person hill visits and more virtual visits as needed.

Advocacy Committee Structure

To better equip the association with the capacity to deal with multiple advocacy issues simultaneously, the Advocacy Committee will be comprised of multiple sub-committees working on focused issue areas.  While the exact make-up of the sub-committees is being finalized, the team categories are likely to be organized around: manufacturing zone Issues, distribution/warehouse zone issues, zone operational issues, and FTZ awareness/promotion.  Existing working groups would be folded into the most appropriate sub-committee.  Each sub-committee will have a chairperson and will receive a charter of authority that would grant each sub-committee a limited level of autonomy to execute certain tasks/operations/facets within its area of responsibility.  Charters of authority will be crafted once the areas of responsibilities are finalized.  Each sub-committee will report to the overarching advocacy committee and the advocacy committee would present updates to the NAFTZ Board of Directors. 

Other recent issues:  NAFTZ is closely watching and engaging CBP regarding two recent CBP developments: 

1) CBP Reimbursable Services Program (RSP) authorization for FTZ purposes and the CSMS notice disallowing storage of UFLPA goods in FTZs.  NAFTZ hosted an open membership meeting regarding the RSP program with 33 participants.  While the meeting did not uncover any FTZ-specific issues regarding the RSP program, NAFTZ advocacy and grantee committees will continue to monitor. 

2) On August 3^rd, CBP released CSMS (#57200992) that suddenly and dramatically changed the policy with respect to storage for goods suspected of being in violation of U.S. forced labor prohibition laws, including the UFLPA and Section 307.  Among other things, the CSMS states: “Importers or their authorized filers may not move detained goods suspected of being made with forced labor into a Foreign Trade Zone for storage.”  Inexplicably, this prohibition comes after confirming that such goods may, with the permission of a Port Director, be temporarily moved to a customs bonded warehouse facility.  Within 24 hours of the CSMS message, NAFTZ requested and held a meeting with our CBP contacts.  While the initial results of the first meeting were inconclusive, NAFTZ has been pressing CBP for a promised follow-up meeting with additional CBP stakeholders ASAP.  This follow-up meeting is expected to take place before the NAFTZ annual conference. 

Watch your inbox for more information on these evolving efforts in the coming weeks and months – and get engaged.  If you have any questions or want to get involved, contact NAFTZ President Jeff Tafel at jtafel@naftz.org