Built for the people running the zone.
If any of this sounds familiar, there's a good chance we've worked with someone in your position before.
Importers & Manufacturers
You're the ones the duty bill actually hits. Whether you're deciding if a zone is worth the overhead or already running one, the numbers and the compliance obligation both land on your desk. Manufacturers with production authority have an added wrinkle: inverted tariff relief only pays off if status determination is handled correctly from day one.
- A tariff change or a comment from your broker is the reason an FTZ is even on the table
- You want arithmetic before you sit through an education
- You have production authority and want to know if inverted tariff relief actually applies to you
Distributors & Third-Party Logistics Providers
You store and move inventory on behalf of importers, sometimes across several clients and several zone statuses in the same warehouse. The recordkeeping bar doesn't move just because the goods on the shelf aren't yours — CBP holds the operator responsible either way.
- You're storing inventory for more than one importer client under one roof
- Zone status has to be tracked at the lot level, not just "in zone" or "not in zone"
- Your client's compliance obligation is, in practice, also yours
Teams Running a Zone Without a Trade Compliance Department
Most companies operating a Foreign-Trade Zone don't have two-tenths of a compliance manager to spare. Whoever inherited the zone is usually doing it alongside a full-time job that isn't FTZ compliance, and the certification going to the port director has their name on it regardless.
- The person who set up the zone doesn't work here anymore
- Reconciliation season is coming and nobody's confident in the numbers
- Your WMS vendor said "yes, we support FTZ" and you're not entirely sure that's true
Before we talk.
Straight answers to the questions we hear most from people sizing up whether this applies to them.
What if we don't fit neatly into one of these three?
Most companies do fit one of the three, but the exact boundaries matter less than they look. What matters is whether you're evaluating a zone, standing one up, or running one without dedicated staff. Tell us where you actually are on the audit call and we'll tell you honestly whether an FTZ applies to your situation at all.
Do you work with companies outside Latin America and Caribbean trade lanes?
Yes. Much of Cargo Compass's practice runs on those lanes because that's where the harder FTA analysis and re-export questions live, but the packages and the regulatory framework are the same regardless of where your goods originate.
Do you work with small operations, or only large importers?
An FTZ carries substantially the same regulatory burden whether you're doing modest volume or ten times as much — which is exactly why the feasibility analysis matters before activation, not after. If the numbers don't support it, we'll say so.
Not sure which of these is you?
That's exactly what the audit call sorts out — including whether an FTZ applies to your situation at all.
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