Stakeholders Consider How to Let FTZs Participate in E-Commerce Distribution, CBP Official Says

An initiative to let foreign-trade zones take part in e-commerce distribution is in the early stages, after Customs and Border Protection ruled the role of FTZs is limited, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, during a panel Tuesday at the agency's trade event in Atlanta. "We have had discussions with key folks out there at both the Hill and from the various associations where there's a lot of discussion going on about what that really means and what the path forward." E-commerce has had much smaller effects on the export side at CBP, Swanson said. The de minimis on the export side, at $2,500, "has always been a lot higher" and most e-commerce goods are below that level, he said.