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December President’s Letter

December 27, 2022

 

December newsletter articles naturally gravitate towards the year that has passed or the year that is yet to come – and so it this one! First and foremost, I must express my gratitude and appreciation for the incredible warm welcome from the entire NAFTZ community.  I am moved by the passion and commitment members have to support each other through NAFTZ, to help their organizations, support the FTZ program, and to the American jobs FTZs support.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve this wonderful organization, our members, and constituents.

Looking back on 2022 as NAFTZ adopts to re-normalize in a post-pandemic world, we were blessed with event participation at near pre-pandemic levels and membership exceeded 700 total members, very close to our 2019 pre-pandemic membership count.  Behind the scenes, staff has been very busy working hard to be more effective and efficient by implementing new technologies while setting the stage for improved member experiences going forward.  Shane mentioned many of these efforts in his article, so I won’t duplicate his message here.

One of the ways we are working to improve membership is through our new Advocacy Survey.  At the time of this writing, we’re still collecting responses but have nearly 25% of the membership participating in the survey.  The survey results will provide new insight into the impact each of our advocacy issues have on member organizations and their FTZ team.  It will help us set our legislative and advocacy priorities and allocate resources accordingly.  We will be providing a full report on the results in the comings weeks to the entire membership.  Until then, I’d like to offer a few interesting observations from the survey so far:

Q:  What best describes your FTZ role or job responsibility?

Q:  Rank issues most important for NAFTZ to focus on in 2023 (all respondents):

  • Fair Treatment of FTZ goods should trade remedy tariffs be suspended/lowered
  • Weekly Estimate for every HTS/COO/MID Combination/Zone Status
  • Increase CBP ACE 999 line limit for Weekly Estimates
  • Section 321 / de minimis for FTZs
  • 19 CFR Part 146 / Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Manual Revisions
  • Ace Programming
  • Duty Drawback Parity between FTZ and non-FTZ duty drawback claims

Issues with most significant impact rating on FTZ organizations (all respondents):

  • Weekly Estimate for every HTS/COO/MID/Zone Status Combination
  • Increasing the 999 Line Limit on Weekly Estimates
  • Section 321 / de minimis for FTZs
  • CBP Resource Funding at the Port level
  • USMCA – Necessary FTZ related changes
  • 19 CFR Part 146 / Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Manual Revisions

Keep in mind these are preliminary results from all respondents.  NAFTZ will focus the results to specific groups of constituents (user-operators, grantees, etc.) and look closely at the additional comments and emerging issues provided by respondents.  We’re very thankful for the high level of participation and thoughtful responses and replies from respondents.  Look for a full report to be released in the coming weeks and discussion at the Legislative Summit in Washington, DC in February.

2023 is a milestone year for NAFTZ as the association turns 50!  We’ll be celebrating our 50th anniversary throughout 2023 and we kicked it off a month early with the membership voting on an anniversary logo.  There were seven options presented to the membership, and with a significant lead over the 2nd place logo and more than a third of all votes, I’m excited to present our 50th Anniversary logo:

In the new year, we’ll finalize our 5-year Advocacy Vision strategic plan and balanced scorecard (some key initiatives are already underway), a new Association Management System, a new NAFTZ website, and much more.

Finally, I want to thank you – our NAFTZ members – for your membership.  Without the many members that serve on NAFTZ committees, task forces, working groups we wouldn’t be able do accomplish all that we do.  Special thanks to all of our volunteers!  I also want to thank everyone who engaged with NAFTZ – that could have been simply replying to our many surveys, sending an advocacy letter to a legislator, asking a colleague to join, attend an NAFTZ event or conference, participated in a webinar, considered AZS certification, or any of the many ways you can make the most of your membership.

The NAFTZ staff and volunteer leadership wants to hear from you throughout the year!  Please don’t hesitate to let us know our thoughts, ideas, concerns or recommendations.  We are here to help any way we can.  My email address is jtafel@naftz.org – and I look forward to hearing from you.

I wish you all happy holidays and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.

Jeffrey J. Tafel, CAE
President, National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones (NAFTZ)
jtafel@naftz.org
202-846-1521 (direct)

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