CBP Unlikely to Allow WRO Goods to Wait in FTZs, Official Says
CBP is working on a response to the proposal that goods under withhold release orders could be held in foreign-trade zones before the final determination on its status, attendees at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference learned Oct. 27. But Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, said “there are issues with that” idea, or else it probably would have been done already.
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Swanson said the agency did a “significant amount of legal review” as it considered NAFTZ's letter proposing this action. If the goods were ultimately found to be made with forced labor, keeping the goods at an FTZ would be fine, he said. But if they were cleared, there's no legal way for goods that were imported into an FTZ, and which did not undergo any manufacturing process after arrival, to exit the FTZ into the U.S.
He said the agency is also concerned that keeping goods in an FTZ puts “them a little bit too close to the supply chain,” though if that were the only problem, there might be a way to work that out. Swanson told the conference that CBP is working on a Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program for foreign-trade zones.
He asked members to contact CBP when they receive a container they were expecting would be full, but is not. Those kinds of reports “help us see smuggling patterns,” Swanson said.