On September 13, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new measures related to de minimis shipments to the United States, including from online marketplaces. Panelists discussed the White House proposals, its use of executive authorities to address this issue, and proposed legislation.

Featured Speakers:

Ralph Carter, Staff Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, FedEx

Kim Glas, President & CEO, National Council of Textile Organizations; Commissioner, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 

Melissa Irmen, Director of Advocacy, NAFTZ-National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones

John Pickel, Senior Director, International Supply Chain Policy, National Foreign Trade Council

Felicia Pullam, Executive Director, Office of Trade Relations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Moderator: Ana Swanson, Trade and International Economics Reporter, The New York Times

Speaker Biographies:

Ralph Carter is Staff Vice President for Regulatory Affairs at FedEx. Mr. Carter leads a team of regulatory attorneys responsible for compliance and policy advocacy at FedEx.  Areas of responsibility include aviation law, security, customs, export controls, workplace safety and trade policy.  Mr. Carter also coordinates global regulatory and trade policy across all FedEx international regions. Mr. Carter’s team advocates for simpler, more open trade rules that reduce barriers and help FedEx customers expand their international business. Mr. Carter is a frequent speaker and contributor to international trade and economic policy organizations including APEC, the WTO, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.  Mr. Carter has also served as Managing Director in the legal department of FedEx’s Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Brussels Belgium.  Prior to FedEx, Mr. Carter served in the State Department as Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.

Kim Glas is the President & CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations; and Commissioner of theU.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 

Commissioner Kimberly Glas was reappointed by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer for a term expiring December 31, 2024. She served as Vice Chair of the Commission for the 2022 report cycle.

Commissioner Glas joined the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) in May 2019 as President and CEO representing domestic manufacturers of textiles and apparel.

She has over two decades experience in government and policy advocacy focused on economics, trade, and manufacturing.

She served as Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a non-profit partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations. In that capacity, she led an organization that works to advance policies to help achieve a stronger economy and a more sustainable future at the intersection of energy, the environment, and trade.

Before leading the BlueGreen Alliance, Commissioner Glas served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that role, she worked to improve the domestic and international competitiveness of the broad product range of U.S. industries. 

Commissioner Glas served for a decade on Capitol Hill working extensively on manufacturing, trade, and economic policy issues for Congressman Michael H. Michaud from Maine and Congressman John J. LaFalce from New York. As Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Congressman Michaud, she led efforts to establish the House Trade Working Group, a key coalition of Members of Congress that works extensively on trade policy and domestic competitiveness issues to this day.

Ms. Glas earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Geneseo.

Melissa Irmen is Director of Advocacy & Strategic Relations and joined the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones (NAFTZ) to execute the association’s advocacy vision plan, sponsorship development, specialized membership initiatives, and other program management. Melissa plays a pivotal role in building strategic partnerships and enhancing the membership experience while driving impactful change within the FTZ community.

Melissa has over 20 years of experience in the Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) industry, most recently as Senior Vice President at ISCM, Inc., a Washington, DC based consulting firm helping companies with FTZ applications, setup, technology, and regulatory agency insight. Melissa is an Accredited Zone Specialist and served as Chair on the Board of Directors for the NAFTZ. Melissa is an active participant in various international trade initiatives and organizations and speaks regularly on global trade topics. She provides technology and trade expertise to many CBP working groups, including, most recently, one focused on utilizing Emerging Technologies.

John Pickel is Senior Director of International Supply Chain Policy at the National Foreign Trade Council, the leading business association dedicated solely to advancing the interests of U.S. companies in international commerce.

In this role, John sets strategic direction and executes efforts to promote efficient, resilient and stable supply chains. This includes advancing policies related to anticounterfeiting, product safety, environmental sustainability, human and labor rights, and preventing illicit trade. He also promotes the implementation of trade facilitation measures and customs best practices across government agencies and international organizations to increase predictability and enable compliance with U.S. trade laws.

John previously served as the Principal Director of Trade and Economic Competitiveness in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans (Policy), where he was a primary trade and supply chain policy advisor to agency leadership, served as the DHS representative to various interagency groups and processes, and led implementation of trade-related initiatives across DHS components.

Prior to joining DHS Policy, John served in various roles at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) over a decade. More recently, he was the Counsellor to the Commissioner for trade facilitation and enforcement matters. In addition to advising CBP executives on trade policy issues, John led engagement with senior administration officials, the trade community, and others to inform the development and implementation of CBP trade priorities. Earlier, John coordinated CBP Congressional Affairs efforts related to trade policy. In this role, he worked closely with Members of Congress and senior staff to shape legislation including the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA) and Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act.

John has represented companies, nonprofit organizations, and cities before Congress and federal agencies at a government relations firm and worked in a leadership office in the U.S. House of Representatives.

John is a graduate of The George Washington University (B.A., Political Science).

Felicia Pullam is the Executive Director, in the Office of Trade Relations (OTR). 

Prior to joining CBP, Ms. Pullam served as the Director of Strategy for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Baltimore.  She has worked on trade issues from both the state and federal perspective: she served at the Delaware Department of State, the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. During the Obama Administration, Ms. Pullam helped steer SelectUSA, a presidential initiative housed within Commerce, during a high-pressure start-up phase to promote the United States as the leading global destination for foreign direct investment. Ms. Pullam was then appointed to be Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials, where she managed three offices to analyze and implement trade policy covering a large swath of the global economy.

Prior to her government service, Ms. Pullam spent nearly a decade in China. She led the Asia regional corporate responsibility and sustainability practice for APCO Worldwide, assisting American companies on stakeholder engagement and a range of supply chain challenges. She began her career in Guangzhou through the Princeton in Asia program, followed by a yearlong adventure as tutor and translator for actress Zhang Ziyi.

Ana Swanson is a domestic correspondent at The New York Times. She writes about trade and international economics. She previously covered the economy, trade and the Federal Reserve for The Washington Post.

Before that, Ana was an editor of Foreign Policy’s South Asia Channel and the editor-in-chief of China Economic Review magazine in Shanghai.

She has a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Northwestern University and a master’s in international relations with a focus in China and international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Before moving to Washington, D.C., she lived and worked in China for eight years.

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On Friday, June 3rd, WITA held a webinar exploring the history of the de minimis provision and its evolution and discuss the implications of legislation included in the America COMPETES Act to amend it.

Featured Speakers:

Beth Henke, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, AEO Inc.

Victoria Lane, Vice President Corporate Compliance, Branch Manager Portland, Coppersmith Global Logistics

Marianne Rowden, Chief Executive Officer, e-Merchants Trade Council

Brenda Smith, Global Director, Government Outreach, Expeditors; and former Executive Assistant Commissioner, Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

Ben Wastler, Senior Director, International Supply Chain Policy, National Foreign Trade Council

Moderator: Scott Miller, Senior Mentor (Non-resident), Executive Education, Center for Strategic & International Studies

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Beth Henke

Beth Henke is the Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. She directly oversees a team of seven lawyers and four non-lawyer professionals with responsibility for privacy and technology, M&A, business development, litigation, marketing, trade, government affairs, and global compliance. She also serves as a co-mentor with her General Counsel for AEO’s real estate attorney and IP attorney. In 2020, she completed the ACC’s Executive Leadership Institute, and she is currently pursuing an Executive Certification through the Wharton School’s Global CxO program.

Before joining AEO, Beth served as the Chief Compliance Officer and Vice President, Litigation for EDMC, a for-profit higher education group based in Pittsburgh, from 2014 to 2017. Beth joined EDMC to help lead the legal group tasked to resolve federal and state civil investigations as well as multiple qui tam actions. The team was able to resolve all of the matters in two years, and Beth was asked to remain at EDMC for a year to oversee implementation of the negotiated consent judgment. Prior to EDMC, Beth was a partner in Reed Smith’s Labor & Employment group and in Marcus & Shapira, a boutique firm in Pittsburgh that focused on outsourced general counsel work for a regional grocery chain.

At AEO, Beth serves as the Executive Sponsor of the REAL Black Alliance, AEO’s first Black ERG. She volunteers regularly with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and serves on the board of the East End Cooperative Ministry, which was founded in 1970 when local faith communities recognized that the impacts of poverty were too great for any one of them to address alone, as well as the ADL Regional Board for Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, where she assists the ADL in fighting hate for good.

Beth is a proud, lifelong resident of Pittsburgh. She attended Allegheny College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She and her husband are very recent empty-nesters, with a daughter starting her career in marketing in Denver and a son starting his sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh.

Victoria Lane

Victoria Lane is the Vice President Corporate Compliance and Branch Manager Portland at Coppersmith Global Logistics. Victoria has been working in the Customs Brokerage and Freight Forwarding industry since 1978. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest originating from Tacoma Wa, and has lived in Portland, Oregon for the last 50 years.

Victoria started in the industry working for an Importer, then migrated to Customs Broker in 1978, where she learned the business from the ground up in the accounting department, then moved to import documentation and away she went from that point. She started at Frank P. Dow Co., which then became F.W. Myers and then The Myers Group. She then moved in 1992 to Edward M Jones & Co where she studied and received her customs brokerage license in 1996. In 2002 Edward M. Jones & Co. became L.E. Coppersmith Inc where she is currently the Portland office Branch Manager. In 2010 she was promoted to the Corporate Compliance Manager for L.E. Coppersmith Inc.

Marianne Rowden

Marianne Rowden is the CEO and a Director of the E-Merchants Trade Council, Inc. (EMTC), a new global trade association for e-commerce entrepreneurs that was created to support simplification of trade, tax and transportation. EMTC facilitates dialogue among the E-Merchant worldwide community and global regulators. As CEO, she will be reaching out to her broad network of policymakers in the United States and at international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, World Customs Organization, the World Bank and UNCTAD to present positions that support the growth of e-commerce across all participants in the supply chain.

Ms. Rowden brings far-reaching experience in trade policy. She is recognized as representing her expansive network of unparalleled technical trade experts before congressional committees and their staff members, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Bureau of Industry and Security, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and several other federal regulatory agencies.

Marianne has also collaborated with the World Customs Organization including taking on leadership roles within the Private Sector Consultative Group, serving three terms as Co-Chair of the WCO’s Work Group on E-commerce which has produced a Framework of Standards. She has strong, long term partnerships with international trade associations to align and solidify global thought leader on trade policy, and to develop many private sector standards, particularly related to online commerce. Among Ms. Rowden’s signature achievements is her international outreach to other trade association around the world, including the Export Council of Australia, ieCanada, INDEX, Japan Machinery Center for Trade and Investment. She became a founding member of the Global Shippers Alliance comprising over 25 national trade associations involved in international transport and trade.

Marianne Rowden most recently completing her tenure at AAEI on March 31, 2021. During her 12 years as President & CEO and 4 years as the Association’s General Counsel Ms. Rowden testified before Congress on trade legislation because of her extensive background from practicing law over 20 years concentrating in international trade and transportation regulatory compliance. As the CEO she was a strong advocate for the membership before regulatory bodies, coalescing and representing the technical expertise of a broad spectrum of companies. Among her signature achievements was her ability to create partnerships with like-minded associations globally to strengthen trade policy positions.

Ms. Rowden served as an Adjunct Professor at The John Marshall School of Law teaching U.S. import and export law, and speaks widely to U.S. and international audiences on trade issues, particularly the future of e-commerce at the World Trade Organization, World Customs Organization, UNCTAD, Tunisia E-Commerce High-Level Conference, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Japan Machinery Center for Trade and Investment, ieCanada, EFA European Forum for External Trade, Excise and Customs, the Council of Supply Chain Management, the Transportation Law Association, and the Transportation Law Institute.

Brenda B. Smith

Brenda B. Smith serves as the Global Director of Government Outreach at Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. She is responsible for Expeditors’ partnerships with government agencies and international organizations focused on supply chain regulation and trade facilitation.

Brenda has extensive experience in international trade and compliance and recently completed a 34-year career with the U.S. government, which included five years on Capitol Hill and responsibilities at the Department of Treasury and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

At CBP, Brenda served as the Executive Assistant Commissioner of Trade from 2014 until 2021. In this role, she led CBP’s trade mission, overseeing trade enforcement, security, and facilitation matters to enable legitimate trade, contribute to American economic prosperity, and protect against risks to public health and safety. She oversaw trade policy implementation, national compliance audits, management of trade data, and CBP’s regulatory processes for administering trade and border operations. She partnered with CBP’s IT experts to expand trade automation and analytics technologies through agile user-based processes and change management.

Brenda serves as part of Expeditors’ delegation to the World Customs Organization Private Sector Consultative Group and as a board member of the Association of Women in International Trade.

Ben Wastler

Ben Wastler is the Senior Director, International Supply Chain Policy at the National Foreign Trade Council. In this role, Ben handles customs, international trade-related regulatory, and key supply chain issues including counterfeiting, product safety, environmental sustainability, labor rights policies and illicit trade, trade facilitation, customs best practices, and other policies to support the resilience and stability of global supply chains. Ben joined the NFTC in June 2021 from the Office of Chief Counsel. Trade and Finance Section, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in Washington, D.C., where he served as an attorney. Prior to CBP, Ben worked at Crowell & Moring LLP, where he focused on antitrust litigation. Ben started his legal career at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, in its New York and Washington, D.C. offices, where he specialized in civil litigation and anti-corruption matters.

Ben is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he earned a B.S. in International Politics, and of Boston College Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the International and Comparative Law Review.

Scott Miller

Scott Miller is a senior mentor (non-resident) with the Executive Education, focusing on leadership development programs for public- and private-sector executives. From 2012 until 2017, he held the William M. Scholl Chair in International Business at CSIS. The Scholl Chair focuses on key issues in the global economy, such as international trade, investment, competitiveness, and innovation. From 1997 to 2012, Mr. Miller was director for global trade policy at Procter & Gamble, a leading consumer products company. In that position, he was responsible for the full range of international trade, investment, and business facilitation issues for the company. He led many campaigns supporting U.S. free trade agreements and has been a contributor to U.S. trade and investment policy over many years. Mr. Miller was a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. Earlier in his career, he was a manufacturing, marketing, and government relations executive for Procter & Gamble in the United States and Canada.

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