Summer Heat Is Here – The FTZ’ine staff hopes everyone enjoyed a well-deserved Memorial Day break. That unofficial start to summer has brought heat, literally and figuratively, to your Nation’s Capital. There are signs that the US economy is slowing quickly. Major retailers including Target and Walmart just reported weaker-than-expected first quarter sales and earnings. Wall Street has struggled to […]

The Shift Is On – In baseball putting on the shift means concentrating your defense on one side of the field where the current batter likes to hit. It is easy to tell when ‘The Shift’ is on because the defensive players are squeezed into a smaller-than-normal section of the field, and large parts of the field are wide open. […]

No Foolin’ – The US economy added over 430,000 jobs last month. That is not a misprint – the pace of recovery from the pandemic has been robust in the United States. The war in Ukraine has made it impossible for Europe to join in that economic growth, however, and despite signs that warfare may be abating, millions of homeless, […]

Change Your Password – A remarkable series of world events coincided to make for a very exciting month in international trade. After weeks of buildup, Russia invaded Ukraine and fighting and casualties are fierce in areas such as the capital Kyiv. The United States and Europe made good on their promises to punish Russia for military action and installed sanctions […]

2022 Off To An Electrifying Start – The Potomac River is indeed frozen right now, but there was still a lot of trade news flowing from Washington in the first month of the year. The largest changes to the HTSUS in five years were just implemented by CBP last week. New entry summary filing rules went into effect to execute […]

Omigoodness Another Variant – The World Health Organization announced a new “variant of concern” last week, right as America was preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. It felt like déjà vu all over again. Britain responded immediately to the announcement by restricting flights from 6 African countries, and EU leaders recommended the same measure for its members. Those moves sparked fears of […]

Prepare For Air – It was always faster. But it was never cheaper. With the current multiplier on container rates, plus the now customary demurrage and detention charges, on top of new terminal fees just going into effect, it may now be less expensive to ship your merchandise by air than by ocean. The G-20 meeting in Rome this past […]

Happy New Year! – Happy New Government Fiscal Year that is. FY 2022 starts today and while it does not have a budget, it does have temporary funding approved just hours ago by both chambers of Congress and the President. That postpones concerns of a government shutdown . . . until December 3rd when the new spending authorization will expire. […]