March 29, 2002
Memorandum for Foreign-Trade Zone Grantees
From: Dennis Puccinelli
Executive Secretary
Subjects: Annual Report; New Address; Export Assistance Centers; Reporting Matters
Annual Reports
Enclosed is a copy of the recently published FTZ Board FY 2000 annual report.
We appreciate your continued efforts to prepare and submit your individual zone annual reports to the Board in a timely manner. Last year, most zones submitted reports on time and responded quickly to our follow up questions. This was very important in helping us to review and process over 300 reports and compile our statistics for our annual report. A few were very late and this delayed our preparation of the enclosed report. We are considering special action related to very late reports.
For FY 2001, we are making good progress, and we again express our appreciation for your responsiveness. For grantees who have not yet submitted a final report for FY 2001, we must ask that you make every effort to complete this requirement within the next 30 days.
The annual report format has been updated, with some minor changes resulting from discussions with the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones. We clarified our request for employment information to include contract employees working within zone sites. We also added "Main Countries of Origin" for the top five categories of foreign status merchandise received at zones or subzones. For the subzone report, the request for the approximate figure for level of production has been moved from the Summary Section (A.) to the Movement of Merchandise Section (B.3.). We also clarified our definitions of the terms "level of production" and "value added."
We ask that you use this new format for your report to the FTZ Board that is due in January 2003. An electronic copy of the updated annual report format is available on the FTZ web site http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage. You may download the new format and store it on your computer, so that you do not need to reenter permanent zone information from year to year. (It is suggested that you use Times New Roman 12 font to keep the original formatting.)
Oil refinery subzones have a special version of the annual report format called "Annual Report Guidelines for Oil Refinery Subzones" which is not affected by the changes described above. That report format was modified last fall (to include a table for certain data), and most oil refineries used it to submit their 2001 report. A copy of the oil refinery annual report guideline can be found on the FTZ web site.
I ask grantees to pass a copy of this memo and the new annual report format to all of your zone and subzone operators and ensure that all communications from the FTZ Board are made available to those operators.
New Address
This is a further notice regarding the address of our new office space. As you may know, the FTZ staff moved to offices located outside of the main Commerce building last September. We now have two addresses, depending on the method of delivery: U.S. Postal Service or private package/letter delivery service. The reason for the two addresses is that there is a requirement that correspondence sent by the U.S. Postal Service be delivered to the Commerce Department headquarters. Correspondence sent by private delivery service may be delivered directly to our new building. Therefore, correspondence, including annual reports, should be addressed to one of two addresses described below, according to the delivery service used.
U.S. Postal Service Address:
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
U.S. Department of Commerce
FCB - Suite 4100W
1401 Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230
Private Package Service Address:
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
U.S. Department of Commerce
Franklin Court Building - Suite 4100W
1099 14th St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
Export Assistance Centers
The U.S. Department of Commerce operates Export Assistance Centers throughout the country that provide businesses a comprehensive array of export counseling and trade finance services. Some centers also have Small Business Administration and Ex-Im Bank counselors while the remainder can provide links to such services. I urge zone grantees, operators and users to form a relationship with your nearest center. For further information, please contact the Department’s Trade Information Center at 800-USA-TRADE. A list of Export Assistance Centers can be found in the National Export Directory, which can be accessed from the FTZ web site under the menu item "List of FTZs by State (National Export Directory)." Once in the NED, select the "Commerce Department - International Trade Administration" menu item.
Reporting Matters
As we mentioned last year, export figures should be based on the zone operator’s knowledge of destination. This means that, for FTZ reporting purposes, grantees or operators, to the best of their knowledge, should report as exported any merchandise that is eventually exported, even though the merchandise may leave the zone on a consumption entry prior to export. We are aware that some subzone operators are electing to make entry for consumption for duty-free products when they leave the zone, even though some products are later exported. If the products are later exported by the company or an affiliate, or used as the basis for a drawback claim, the products must be reported as exports, under the "Forwarded, To Foreign Countries" heading. Such data may be estimated or derived from existing annual data. In general, the figures for the FTZ annual report can be derived from existing data, including data available from an operator’s Customs inventory system, which tracks foreign status merchandise.
The narrative section of the report has been getting increased attention in terms of evaluating the economic effects of individual zone projects as well as the zones program overall. I urge you to focus on this section. You may answer the series of questions for this section in a single narrative format that can be attached to the report and updated year to year. This may be more efficient than answering each question individually.
Census
As we have mentioned previously, statistical data on merchandise admitted to zones must be reported on the CF-214A, and all merchandise exported must be reported on the Shippers Export Declaration (SED). I want to draw particular attention to the U.S. Census Bureau's (Census) Automated Foreign Trade Zone Reporting Program (AFTZRP) which allow FTZ's to submit their 214A statistical data directly to the Census, via the internet (www.census.gov/foreign-trade/aftzrp). Also, U.S. Customs (Customs)and Census have developed an internet-based SED reporting system as part of the Automated Export System (AES)(See www.aesdirect.gov). I believe theseprograms will not only improve the accuracy of our trade data but also improve reporting efficiency for zone users. If you have any questions concerning AFTZRP, please contact the Data Collection Coordination Branch at 301-457-2259. For questions concerning AES, please contact the AES Branch at 1-800-549-0595, and, for Census data products, please contact the Data
Dissemination Branch at 301-457-2311.
FTZ List on the National Export Directory
The National Export Directory (NED) includes a list of foreign-trade zones by state. This list gives each zone the opportunity to provide information on its project and to establish a link to its own web site. Each zone grantee is responsible for providing suitable information on its zone. The NED is managed by the Commerce Department’s Trade Information staff. If you need to establish an entry or make changes/additions, please, call 1-800-USA-TRADE and ask for Shikha Bhatnagar or Dean Matlack, extension x20499.
Please note that the FTZ staff separately will continue to maintain a list of zones and contact persons which also appears on the FTZ web site and in the FTZ Board’s annual report. We ask that you also inform the FTZ staff of any changes to your zone’s contact person, address or phone number. Please fax changes to (202) 482-0002.
FTZ Staff.
For those of you that have not had the opportunity to visit the FTZ Board staff recently, I would like to provide you with an updated list of our staff members. Our e-mail addresses are first and last names, separated with an underscore ("_"), plus "@ita.doc.gov".
