After a successful event last year, the US Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) Board will be holding another free FTZ grantee outreach event in Washington, DC on February 8, 2012, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The forum is for officials of grantee organizations or other public agencies and will be broken into a morning and afternoon session.
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When WCO HS updates are released the affect is typically limited to a few companies within certain industries. However, this time the 2012 updates are affecting more industries and companies. The timing of these changes going to effect in the US is also causing some issues for those companies operating US Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs). To assist those companies with knowing which HTS number should be used on the CF3461 and the CF7501, Integration Point has created this document of FAQs to assist with this transition.
Share this Post[?] The Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) Board has just released its 72nd Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2010, which confirms the continuing importance of the FTZ program in promoting US exports, commercial activity, and economic recovery.
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This year’s rollout of the Online Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) Information System (OFIS) brought along changes in how annual board reports are submitted as well as a new reporting period (January 1- December 31). General information about OFIS was made available by the FTZ Board (FTZB) earlier this year, but there are still questions about the new system that the resource didn’t completely answer. So, the FTZB now has several tutorials on the use of OFIS, including how to submit annual report information.
(Based on the original Welsh version Deck the Halls by John Parry Ddall and lyrics by John Ceiriog Hughes)
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Alan Bersin announced today that he will step down effective December 30, 2011.
For petroleum refineries in the US, there is a special grant of Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes that are allowed to receive inverted duty benefits in a Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ). With the new HS codes coming from the World Customs Organization (WCO) 2012 HS Updates, products are going to get new HS codes that are not on the list because they did not exist when the list was created.
Share this Post[?] The US Office of International Trade has recently issued a blanket authorization for Immediate Delivery (ID) procedures for merchandise to be released from December 15-31, only. This authorization is offered to filers who may elect to take advantage of the interim Harmonized Tariff Schedule changes that take effect on January 1, 2012.
Share this Post[?] US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released a notice about the refund deadlines and details of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). As you may remember, the GSP was retroactively renewed in October and included the allowance for a refund of all duties paid on GSP- eligible merchandise that was entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the period from January 1, 2011-November 4, 2011.
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This has been a busy year for Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs) — new FTZ activations, regulation changes, updates, and a new manual published. While these changes affected all industries participating in FTZs, there was one particular industry that has experienced a large growth in the use of FTZs – the textile and apparel industry. According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the textile and apparel industry represents more than $94 billion in annual imports and almost 50% of all duties collected by CBP.
