Report on Some U.S. Foreign Trade Zones of Interest

Foreign Trade Zones ("FTZs") were created in the United States to provide special customs procedures to U.S. plants engaged in international trade-related activities. Duty-free treatment is accorded items that are processed in FTZs and then reexported, and duty payment is deferred on items until they are brought out of the FTZ for sale in the U.S. market. This helps to offset customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with domestic industry. In situations where zone manufacturing results in a finished product that has a lower duty rate than the rates on foreign inputs (inverted tariff), the finished products may be entered at the duty rate that applies to its condition as it leaves the zone. In other words, FTZ procedures can be a way to eliminate paying import duties on your foreign inputs.

Until 2009 most textiles were excluded from consideration for FTZs. Since then the number of filings relating to textiles has increased significantly. Agathon Associates has compiled a list of some of the FTZ filings that may be of interst to our blog readers (in each case click on the Docket Number to get a full report each individual FTZ filing).