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Demystifying Foreign-Trade Zones: Tackling 3 Myths to Leverage FTZs in 2022

FTZs
Archives, Foreign Trade Zones, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

Demystifying Foreign-Trade Zones: Tackling 3 Myths to Leverage FTZs in 2022

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Bigfoot, the Boogie Man, the Loch Ness Monster, and… Foreign-Trade Zones? Despite the overwhelming advantages offered by U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs), there are still many misconceptions — and sometimes a little fear — surrounding the program. Much like Bigfoot, the reality of FTZs is far less scary.

To better understand FTZs, let’s get back to the basics. Foreign-trade zones, also referred to internationally as “free-trade zones” (and formerly named “free ports”), are areas where goods may be received, packaged, manipulated, manufactured, processed, and re-exported without the intervention of the customs authorities. These zones are designated sites authorized by the U.S. FTZ Board. A site that has been granted zone status must be approved for FTZ activation by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to receive FTZ benefits. While FTZs are considered to be outside CBP territory, foreign-trade zones still fall under the supervision of CBP.

These guidelines and procedures allow domestic activity involving foreign items to take place prior to formal customs entry. As a result, businesses — typically manufacturers and distributors — that leverage these zones drastically reduce or eliminate duty costs, encourage U.S. trade, and improve supply chain productivity.

FTZs have been in existence since 1934, and despite the fact that the program offers distribution and manufacturing companies tremendous reductions in duties, customs fees, and even logistics costs, FTZs still seem to be a misunderstood or even unrecognized trade program. How prevalent are FTZs in the U.S.? Who uses them? Are they still a viable solution?

According to the 2020 FTZ Report to the U.S. Congress, there were 195 active FTZs across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, and 3,400 companies taking part in the program. Last year also saw $625 billion in shipments made through FTZs, despite the challenges the global supply chain faced in 2020.

It’s understandable for CSCOs and business leaders to have concerns when introducing a new trade program. Some companies may be dragging their feet due to the current strain on the supply chain, and others may believe common FTZ misconceptions. However, companies that are taking advantage of FTZs are realizing impressive savings, and in many cases, obtaining relief from a number of supply chain issues. It’s time to debunk some common myths to demystify FTZs, explore the benefits of the program, and learn how to leverage FTZs in an increasingly competitive world. Let’s get started.

Myth #1: “My entire company and supply chain will be disrupted if I start using an FTZ.”

Over the past 20 years, the FTZ program has changed significantly. These changes make it far easier to establish and operate an FTZ.  In fact, if an FTZ is implemented by a knowledgeable advisor, there should be little change to a company’s daily processes and procedures, including logistics.

With the right FTZ inventory and record-keeping system in place, the only changes a company will notice will be placed on the designed FTZ administrator. Today’s FTZ solution providers establish and manage the entire FTZ program and its inventory. Therefore, there is also no longer a need to physically separate foreign and domestic inventory between FTZ and non-FTZ areas within the facility.

Essentially, your supply chain will look and operate the same tomorrow in a foreign-trade zone as it did yesterday, with two notable exceptions. Firstly, the FTZ program can speed up your supply chain so that you receive foreign shipments quicker; and secondly, after implementing an FTZ, you will have access to all the benefits — which brings us to myth #2.

Myth #2: “Zones only benefit companies that have long inventory turns, or re-export. Our company turns inventory quickly and has limited exports, so the FTZ program will not benefit us.”

It is well-known that FTZs defer duty payment on merchandise brought into a zone and that duties are paid only when the goods enter into U.S. commerce. This holds a lot of value and can lead to additional cash flow, but that isn’t the only benefit to using an FTZ. Other benefits include:

Relief from inverted tariffs: There are many cases where a component or raw material is subject to a higher duty rate than the finished product. An FTZ allows the manufacturer to pay duty at the manufactured item rate, rather than the higher component rate. This helps U.S.-based producers serve the domestic market on a level playing field versus importers of the same finished product.

Duty exemption from re-exports: This one is pretty simple and a huge advantage for FTZ users: there are no duties on or quota charges on re-exports. Therefore, if you were to export goods to another country, they would generally be exempt from duties. Generally, with an FTZ, the only time you have to pay is when the item enters U.S. markets.

Savings with weekly entries: Under standard importing procedures, companies have to pay a Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) for every Customs entry. As of October 1st, 2021, the MPF is capped at a maximum of $538.40 per entry. Under Weekly Entry procedures, zone users can group all imports within a week into a single customs entry and pay a single MPF. This can yield substantial cost savings and reduce processing time and labor. For instance, a company that has 2,500 Customs entries a year would pay $1,346,000, assuming each entry hit the cap. If the company utilized Weekly Entries, 2,400 entries would be reduced to only 52. This offers savings of $1,318,003 just on MPFs.

No duty on waste, scrap, and yield loss: Without a zone, an importer pays the Customs duty owed as material is brought into the U.S. In a zone, no duty is paid on irrecoverable yield loss, or merchandise that is scrapped or destroyed. This can lead to tremendous benefits with even a low scrap rate. There are also advantages for recoverable scrap that can be sold or recycled, as the most common duty rate for scrap sold into the U.S is zero.

The ability to fix damaged or non-conforming items: Savings can be further increased because when an item that is considered “damaged” or “non-conforming” is tested and repaired, no duties are owed. Items can even be altered, repackaged, or relabeled to meet U.S. requirements with no extra cost.

State and local benefits: Foreign and domestic goods held for export are exempt from state and local inventory taxes. In addition, FTZ status may also make a site eligible for state and local benefits that are unrelated to the FTZ Act.

Free zone-to-zone movement: More savings are to be had when transferring goods from one FTZ to another. In this scenario, regardless of the number of shipments you make, you are not subject to duty on the goods. A beneficial use of this would be the duty-free transport of raw materials and components, eliminating any fees until the finished product is officially shipped into the U.S. market.

These benefits can add up to millions of dollars in cost savings and offer a strong competitive advantage for U.S. manufacturers and distributors. What’s keeping companies from taking advantage of these benefits? Here we find myth #3.

Myth #3: “The process is too overwhelming.”

The process to implement an FTZ can seem overwhelming, but with the right advisor and software, implementing a zone comes down to four easy steps:

Step 1: Get an in-depth analysis. Contact a trusted provider of FTZ solutions and schedule a call to discuss your goals and challenges; request a complementary evaluation and cost/benefit analysis with a service provider (like this one). This will ensure you understand the net savings the FTZ program can offer your company.

Step 2: Choose an FTZ solution provider. Your selected partner should assist your facility to receive FTZ designation. If you are a manufacturer or producer, your partner will assist in securing FTZ production authority. In addition, they will help activate your facility with CBP.

Step 3: Implement the software. Probably the most important step in maximizing net FTZ benefits, is choosing the right FTZ inventory control solution. A comprehensive software solution will ensure you compliantly maximize FTZ savings while minimizing administration costs.

Step 4: Reap the benefits. It’s that simple.

Why now?

The supply chain and e-commerce underwent rapid transformation in the past several years due to COVID-19, Brexit, newly imposed tariffs, and other challenges. As consumer behavior evolves, the global e-commerce market is expected to grow by $1 trillion by 2025, too. These trends are causing global manufacturers to rethink the “just in time” lean manufacturing strategy into a “just in case” model. FTZs are the perfect solution, allowing them to store more inventory in the zone without incurring inventory costs and duty over time.

Debunking common FTZ myths helps unmask the many benefits they bring for manufacturers and distributors. As e-commerce grows and the world regains control of the supply chain, now is the time to get ahead and take advantage of them.

Corey Rhodes is the President of QAD Precision

special 301
Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

“SPECIAL 301”: HOW THE U.S. MONITORS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

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Protecting the ideas behind international trade

Americans following U.S.-China trade relations during the past three years might be familiar with the reference to intellectual property rights (“IPR”) as the basis of the current Administration’s actions to level the trade playing field with China. In 2017, the Administration initiated an investigation into China’s policies, practices and actions that are detrimental to U.S. commercial interests. One of the major complaints is China’s requirement that U.S. companies provide its technologies to Chinese entities in order to do business. This was viewed as forcing U.S. companies to share trade secrets, a form of intellectual property rights.

While the U.S.-China trade issues have dominated recent headlines, the U.S. Government and U.S. industry have been assessing the commercial environment for IPR (patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs, geographical indications, trade secrets) in our trading partners for decades.

A “special” trade provision

The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 was signed and went into effect the same year. The Act included a legal provision commonly known as “Special 301” (19 U.S.C. §2242).

The Special 301 provision focuses specifically on IPR and foreign countries whose acts, practices and policies have a detrimental effect on U.S. entities. The law directs the U.S. Government to identify acts, practices and policies that may, for example, prevent IPR owners from obtaining adequate and effective protection for their IPR assets or may be denied fair and equitable market access for their IPR assets in a foreign country.

More specifically, the Special 301 provision instructs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) to issue a report every year (19 U.S.C. §2242(h)) that identifies the foreign countries whose IPR acts, practices or policies are the most onerous or egregious.

In so doing, USTR is instructed to consult with other agencies of the government such as the Copyright Office, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other appropriate federal government officials and accept inputs from any interested persons (19 U.S.C. §2242(b)(2)). USTR obtains private sector input for its annual report by publishing a notice in the Federal Register that solicits public comment. For example, as part of the 2020 report, USTR published a notice in the December 23, 2019 Federal Register, “Request for Comments and Notice of a Public Hearing Regarding the 2020 Special 301 Review”.

Jobs reliant on IP intensive industries (1)

Priorities and watch lists

The annual Special 301 report has evolved over the past 30 years. If USTR designates a country as a “priority foreign country,” USTR is required to enter into negotiations to obtain commitments from that foreign government toward specific actions to eliminate the detrimental act, practice or policy or subject the government to trade sanctions.

The first report in 1989 identified 25 countries, but did not designate any of these 25 countries as a “priority foreign country”. To provide more flexibility, the 1989 report created two additional categories: “priority watch list” and “watch list”. In 2016, the Special 301 law was amended to require USTR to create an action plan for countries placed on the priority watch list (19 U.S.C. §2242(g)).

Last year, USTR declined to designate any priority foreign countries but included China, India, Chile and Indonesia on its priority watch list. USTR is also monitoring the European Union’s practices regarding whether companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google will be liable for copyright violations by third parties on their platforms. Some U.S. industries will testify that Canada should be placed on the priority foreign country list this year for geographical indications that undermine U.S. trademarks, plain packaging regulations, and lack of adequate drug patent protections.

High Costs of IP Theft2

What’s the government looking for?

IPR owners conducting business in foreign markets and confronting challenges regarding the treatment of their IPR assets can learn about the kinds of IPR issues USTR will address by reviewing past Special 301 reports. In the 2019 report, USTR cited a broad spectrum of IPR issues identified as problematic in foreign markets. The issues cited included:

-enforcement and market access issues regarding pharmaceutical and medical devices,

-online and broadcast piracy,

-lack of ex officio authority for customs officials to seize and destroy infringing goods,

-lack of legal authority for customs officials to stop in-transit movement of infringing goods,

-lack of effective policies and procedures to prevent government agencies from using unlicensed software,

-restrictive patentability criteria,

-inadequate legal protection for trade secrets, and

-negative effects on market access due to the adoption of the European Union approach to the protection of geographical indications.

As the list above demonstrates, the IPR-related issues that are addressed as problematic in foreign countries reflects issues identified by private sector enterprises. Those doing business abroad are in the best position to identify what IPR-related deficiencies hamper the ability to do business in a particular foreign market.

“Notorious Markets”

USTR’s reporting has adapted over the years. In recent years, the annual report has been supplemented by a separate “Notorious Markets” report which is prepared and issued separately. The Notorious Markets report “highlights prominent and illustrative examples of online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial piracy and counterfeiting.” The 2018 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets identifies the proliferation of counterfeit goods availability on online marketplaces as a threat to IPR owners. The report also identified an online “cyberlocker” in Poland, demonstrating how the report reflects the changing IPR environment due to technology.

The latest USTR Notorious Markets report provides an example of how USTR works to keep up with emerging and troublesome developments. The report includes a special section that focuses on free trade zones (FTZs) as especially problematic in facilitating trade in IPR-infringing products. The report notes that FTZs are “major facilitators of illegal and criminal activity, including the illicit trade in pirated and counterfeit goods, smuggling, and money laundering.”

Neighborhood watch

The Special 301 legal process is available to U.S. IPR owners and to any American business that owns IP and conducts commercial activity abroad. Becoming familiar with past reports, the Special 301 legal provision and the U.S. Government agencies involved is a good start to take advantage of this provision. As the Special 301 reports document, no foreign country is excepted from the possibility of being named as having detrimental acts, practices or policies.

To be effective, both the annual Special 301 report and the Notorious Markets report require the active involvement of the private sector community. While U.S. embassies can provide input for these reports, the report depends upon U.S. businesses who are the victims of foreign acts, practices and policies to identify these so that the U.S. Government can assess these issues and raise them with foreign governments.

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Tim-Trainer

Tim Trainer was an attorney-advisor at the U.S. Customs Service and U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. He is a past president of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition. Tim is now the principal at Global Intellectual Property Strategy Center, P.C., and Galaxy Systems, Inc.

This article originally appeared on TradeVistas.org. Republished with permission.

WTO
Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

Erasing the Global Gains from the WTO Government Procurement Agreement?

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Government purchases are a trillion-dollar opportunity for U.S. businesses

Governments buy a wide variety of goods and services from the private sector, from bridges and road construction to power plants and digital infrastructure to office and hospital supplies. In 2018, global government procurement amounted to $11 trillion or 12 percent of global GDP. The U.S. government procurement market alone was $837 billion in 2010.

While most countries have regulations to ensure government procurement is handled in a fair and transparent manner, procurement processes are susceptible to a high incidence of corruption, particularly in the form of undue influence on the bidding outcomes of public contracts.

Enter global procurement trade disciplines

The first agreement on government procurement – called the “Tokyo Round Code on Government Procurement” – was negotiated in 1979 by a small group of countries who wanted to develop a set of harmonized rules governing public procurement that would set a high standard for transparency and openness. That agreement was subsequently renegotiated as the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) in 1994 as part of the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and members agreed to further expand the GPA in 2012. As of May of last year, when Australia became the most recent member to join the GPA, 48 countries were party to the Agreement, with 34 countries having observer status (including 10 of those in active negotiations to join the agreement). The GPA now covers $1.7 trillion in government procurement activities from its member countries.

The GPA includes general disciplines to ensure fair, open and transparent procurement processes for products that exceed a dollar threshold specified by the agreement. Additionally, each country has committed to a “schedule” which specifies which of its entities and purchases are subject to the agreement. Countries typically exclude defense and national security purchases from the agreement as well as set-asides for small, minority-owned and veteran-owned businesses. Disputes under the GPA can be raised through the WTO dispute settlement system.
value of global procurement

Some WTO members but not all

The GPA is a so-called “plurilateral” agreement, meaning only a subgroup of WTO member countries are party to it, and therefore the WTO’s most-favored-nation principle does not apply. Rather, the countries that are parties to the agreement grant each other access to their government procurement markets under the terms of the GPA, but that access is not offered to WTO member countries that are not GPA members.

The United States includes similar procurement language from the GPA in its bilateral free trade agreements, like the recently negotiated U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. All told, the United States has procurement agreements with 58 countries, including the GPA countries and countries with which it has separate free trade agreements.

Even for countries that are not GPA members, the rules in the agreement have become the accepted norms for government procurement globally, with most countries aspiring to this level of fairness and transparency, even if they don’t implement the GPA fully.

The relationship between GPA and “Buy American” requirements

Prior to the GPA, Congress enacted a series of domestic content statutes to ensure that public procurement projects funded by U.S. tax dollars benefit U.S. firms and workers. The Buy American Act of 1933 requires federal government procurement of U.S.-origin articles, supplies and material or manufactured products to be produced “substantially all” from domestic inputs. While equipment can have a minimal amount of foreign content to qualify, the allowed amount is extremely low. The act generally also allows a price preference for domestic end products and construction materials.

Buy American requirements may be waived under three circumstances: (1) if a decision is made that it is in the public interest to do so; (2) if the cost of U.S.-made products is unreasonable; or (3) if the products are not available in sufficient quality or quantity from U.S. producers. Since the GPA was negotiated, a fourth circumstance was introduced: Buy American can be waived with respect to procurement bids originating from countries that have provided reciprocal access to their own domestic procurement markets.

A push for expansion?

The Trump administration is reportedly reviewing the benefits of the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement. As reported to the WTO, the United States offered more procurement opportunities to foreign firms in 2010 (the last year for which data are available) than the next five largest GPA parties combined, which include the European Union’s 27 members, Japan, South Korea, Norway and Canada. The United States may open as much as 80 percent of federal contracts to foreign suppliers, whereas the European Union, Japan and Korea may open somewhere between 13 and 30 percent of central government contracts to foreign suppliers.

However, a U.S. government review that offered those calculations also points out that lags and inconsistencies in foreign government data reporting, data gaps, and a lack of methodology for reporting on sub-federal procurement, make it difficult to determine GPA benefits with accuracy.

And while foreign suppliers are able to compete for certain U.S. government contracts, the GPA and bilateral free trade agreements enable U.S. companies to compete in the nearly $2 trillion dollar government procurement market in the other signatory countries, an opportunity that would be significantly limited by withdrawal from the GPA. In many cases, such as sales of medical devices and medicines to state-run hospitals, software for government agency use, sales of power equipment, and the construction of hard infrastructure, the GPA offers the primary form of access by U.S. companies to foreign markets.

Worse than losing reciprocity

Ironically, American withdrawal from GPA would also complicate the ability of U.S. companies to sell their products to the U.S. government. Very few U.S. products today are 100 percent American. Supply chains of U.S. companies are increasingly global, meaning that even products manufactured within the United States are likely to have non-U.S. components or materials. Today, U.S. companies selling equipment to the U.S. government containing non-U.S. content from a GPA signatory country are not subject to the Buy American Act. However, if the United States were to withdraw from GPA, Buy American regulations would apply, potentially disqualifying U.S. companies from selling products that contain foreign content to the U.S. government.

Participation in the GPA not only maintains U.S. companies’ ability to compete for foreign contracts, it also gives the U.S. government leverage to negotiate greater market access under better terms by seeking to expand coverage. This may be particularly important as economies grow around the world and begin to spend higher percentages of their budgets on government procurement. Also, the race is on to set technology standards around the world such as 5G. If U.S. companies cannot bid to secure government contracts, they may find themselves on the outside of key growth markets, ceding them to competitors from Europe, Canada, Japan and China.

Another way to improve the WTO

While the global trade rules in the GPA seem like an arcane subject, the agreement has had a profound impact on government procurement practices globally. It opened an enormous government procurement market for the signatory countries – including the United States – and created a set of open and transparent regulations that even non-signatories countries work toward. Working within the agreement to improve and expand coverage would benefit U.S. suppliers not just to compete overseas, but to compete for contracts here at home.

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Orit headshot

Orit Frenkel is the Executive Director of the American Leadership Initiative, which is advancing a new smart power paradigm of American global leadership. She is also the President of Frenkel Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in trade and Asia. Previously she spent 26 years as an executive for GE and before that as a trade negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

This article originally appeared on TradeVistas.org. Republished with permission.