January 2, 2013

FTZ Board Annual Report

My staff and I are please to share with you the FTZ Board’s just-released Annual Report to Congress. In sync with the recent changes in how the data is collected, we have completely overhauled the format for the report. We believe that this new format should be much more useful.

We would like to thank all of the grantees and operators that submitted timely and complete reports. The data collected in the annual report is key to successfully communicating the positive impact of the FTZ program on the U.S. economy.

As the new year begins, we would also like to remind you that the deadline for the 2012 report is approaching. Each operator should hear from their zone’s grantee about the deadline for the operator to submit its report to the grantee. The grantee must then review and finalized its zone’s overall report to the FTZ Board by March 31.

As a reminder, there were several changes to the annual report last year which will continue:

1) All reports will need to be submitted via the Online FTZ Information System (OFIS):

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

2) The reporting period for the annual report is the calendar year (January 1 through December 31).

3) Operators can indicate if their data are considered “business proprietary” (in which case any public reports generated based on that data will only indicate ranges into which the data fall).

We will be conducting free webinars in the coming months for grantees and operators on the annual report submission. Training videos and tutorials are also available at any time on our website – https://enforcement.trade.gov/ftzpage/letters/tutorials.html – and we have support staff ready to assist you one-on-one, as needed.

If you have any questions on OFIS or the annual report process, do not hesitate to contact Liz Whiteman (202-482-0473, Elizabeth.Whiteman@trade.gov) or Marsha Foust (202-482-5832, Marsha.Foust@trade.gov).

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