September 11, 2009
FTZ Board Grantee Update
This e-mail inaugurates a regular series of updates from the FTZ Board staff to grantees on key developments in
the FTZ program. I hope that this type of regular communication will be helpful to all of you.
The first topic for this update is one that I’m very enthusiastic about. In order to improve our responsiveness
and accessibility for grantees, we are reorganizing our staff along regional lines. We now have five Regional
Representatives each with a distinct territory – the Northeast, Southeast, Great Lakes, Central, and Western
regions. The driving factor behind the shift to this regional model is to give each of you a primary contact
person on the FTZ Board staff who will get to know you and your zone. Over the month or so, each of you should be
hearing directly from your Regional Representative. I hope that these contacts will be the starting point for
very successful working relationships, and remember that your Regional Representative is available for any FTZ-
related questions or concerns that you may have.
A second important topic is the updated formats that we will be releasing within the next week for requests for
minor boundary modifications (MBMs). We have had to create a format for MBMs under the FTZ Board’s recently
adopted Alternative Site Framework (ASF), and the ASF MBM format reflects the simplicity and reduced burden that
are hallmarks of the ASF. At the same time, we are updating the format for MBMs under the traditional (non-ASF)
site framework. That updated MBM format will provide a straightforward series of questions to answer, rather than
the old-style set of criteria to address. We ask that you ensure than any MBM requests submitted to our office
after October 31st use the updated MBM format. And, for all MBM requests, we are emphasizing that we can only
accept complete requests (rather than the piecemeal submission of documents that has sometimes occurred with MBM
requests in the past).
Finally, my staff and I are continuing our series of regional grantee outreach sessions to provide training and
to discuss in a small-group setting any topics or issues of interest to you. Our next outreach sessions are
scheduled for Dallas, TX on September 25 and Charlotte, NC on October 29. Details are on our web site –
www.trade.gov/ftz – via the link in the “What’s New” box. And we will send out additional updates once any new
grantee outreach sessions are scheduled.
As always, do not hesitate to contact our staff with questions, concerns or comments. You also should have your
first, introductory contact soon from your designated Regional Representative. In the meantime, we welcome your
feedback on this e-mail update. You can just hit the “Reply” button and let us know what you think!
Andrew
Andrew McGilvray
Executive Secretary and Staff Director
U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(202) 482-2862
www.trade.gov/ftz