In its Investigation No. 332-588 on Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs), the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is finalizing its draft FTZ Questionnaire which it plans to send out in late August to all FTZs with FTZ Board production authority and production activity since 2016.  FTZ Questionnaires are required by law to be completed, and there will be a short, thirty (30) day deadline to respond, i.e., late September 2022.  

The ITC has indicated that it recently sent out emails to contacts at production FTZs to alert them to look out for an email later this month with the FTZ Questionnaire.  If production FTZ clients have not received an email from the ITC, please contact the firm to discuss because the ITC may need to be notified of the correct contact names and email addresses.

The draft FTZ Questionnaire (which is currently under OMB review) includes a large number of detailed questions which will be burdensome and time-consuming to complete.  The ITC estimates that it will require 20 hours to complete, but this may be conservative depending on the level of zone activity, internal resources, and software capabilities.  A number of the datapoints may be difficult to quantify.  For instance, questions include annual number of employees, total wages paid, and hours worked, as well as annual values of import and export shipments broken down by Domestic, Privileged Foreign (PF), and Non-Privileged Foreign (NPF) zone status inputs and value added.

Given the breadth and depth of questions, it makes sense for FTZ clients with production authority to start gathering information, running reports, and preparing responses to the FTZ Questionnaire. Here is a Microsoft Word version of the draft FTZ Questionnaire which may be used as a worksheet.  The official FTZ Questionnaire will need to be completed and submitted via a USITC secure website, and there will be an opportunity to review, edit, and download a copy before officially submitting the final questionnaire.

Contact Marshall V. Miller, Linda D. King, or Brian J. Murphy with questions or if you are an FTZ with production activity since 2016 and have not been contacted by the ITC.