February 4, 2015

Zone Schedules and Public Utility/Uniform Treatment Documents

The FTZ Board’s regulations issued in February 2012 included revised provisions pertaining to zone schedules (15 CFR 400.44) and public utility compliance (15 CFR 400.42) for fees listed in zone schedules. The delayed compliance date for the zone schedule and public utility sections of the regulations was February 28, 2014. Since that date, the FTZ Board staff has contacted grantees in an effort to ensure that the Board has updated and accurate zone schedules for each zone.

The FTZ Board’s revised regulations also require the Board to “make copies of zone schedules available on its Web site” (15 CFR 400.44(e)). In accordance with that provision, we are loading each zone schedule on file into the Board’s Online FTZ Information System (OFIS), which is accessible at:

http://ita-web.ita.doc.gov/FTZ/OFISLogin.nsf"

In OFIS, click on “Zone and Site Information” and a list of zones sorted by number will come up. Click “Open” next to the zone number. The top part of the screen will then display general zone and grantee information. That zone’s zone schedule will be attached as a “.pdf” file on the right side of the page.

There are a limited number of zone grantees for which the FTZ Board has no zone schedule on file. Each such grantee has been contacted by the Board staff in an attempt to obtain its zone schedule. In the absence of submitted zone schedules, those zones are not permitted to undertake FTZ operations pursuant to 15 CFR 400.41(b) (which requires the grantee of a zone to submit a zone schedule to the FTZ Board prior to the operation of any zone site or subzone). Each such zone grantee and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office that would oversee operations in the zone in question are being notified that the zone is not permitted to undertake FTZ operations pursuant to 15 CFR 400.41(b). The list of those zones will be available on the FTZ Board’s website – www.trade.gov/ftz – including being highlighted in the website’s “What’s New” box.

Finally, we have also added a page to the “Reading Room” section of the FTZ Board’s website containing documents related to public utility and uniform treatment compliance. Currently, the page contains training material, as well as requests and decisions related to the waiver provision of the uniform treatment section of the regulations. Other documents related to public utility and uniform treatment compliance should be added to the page over time. The direct link to the page is:

https://enforcement.trade.gov/ftzpage/publicutility/publicutility.html

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your regional representative or our office’s general contact point at (202) 482-2862 or FTZ@trade.gov.

Andrew McGilvray
Executive Secretary and Staff Director
U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(202) 482-2862
www.trade.gov/ftz