2. What is a Foreign Trade Zone?
• Secure areas located in or adjacent to a
Customs Port of Entry
• Legally outside the US Customs territory
– Goods in zones are considered to be part of
international commerce, not domestic
– It is only once goods leave the zone to enter
the commerce of the US, that normal tariff
and Customs regulations apply to those
goods

3. FTZ Regulations
• U.S. Foreign Trade Zones Act of 1934
(19 USC 81a-u)
• Foreign Trade Zones Board Regulations
(15 CFR Part 400)
• U.S. Customs Service Regulations
(19 CFR Part 146)

4. Purpose of the FTZ Program
• Expedite and encourage foreign commerce
• Create jobs and investment in the US that
would otherwise take place overseas

5. What can be done in an FTZ?
Merchandise entering a zone can be:
Assembled
Displayed
Stored
Destroyed
Manipulated
Sampled Manufactured
Relabeled Cleaned
Sampled
Tested
Processed Repaired
Repackaged

6. What are the benefits of an FTZ?
• Duty deferral
• Duty reduction (inverted tariff)
• Duty reduction or elimination on
scrap/waste
• Streamlined entry procedures
– Direct delivery
– Weekly entries
• Reduction in merchandise processing and
brokerage fees
• Exemption from ad valorem taxes

7. Additional benefits
• Improved Customs compliance
• Lower security and insurance costs
• Shorter transit time using direct
delivery
• No time constraints on storage
• Improved inventory control
• Customs interaction

8. Regulatory agencies
• There are two primary agencies that
regulate FTZs:
 FTZ Board – Establish how FTZs are
designated and authorized to activate
 US Customs – Regulate the operation of
FTZ once activated

9. Zone Terminology
• General Purpose Zone
–
–
–
–
A site or facility that provides multiple users
Public warehouse
Industrial park
Port complex
• Subzone (Special purpose zone)
– Single-purpose, single company site
– Typically manufacturing or large distribution
operation

10. Zone Terminology
• Grantee
– Frequently port authorities, state/local
economic development agencies
– Serves as public representative of the
zone project
– Submit applications for zone
modifications, site approvals and
manufacturing authority
– Responsible for monitoring the operations
and status of zone use

11. Zone Terminology
• Operator
– Provide day-to-day oversight of zone site
activities which include receipt, storage
and shipping of merchandise,
recordkeeping, and periodic reporting
– Deals directly with Customs on day-to-day
matters
– Responsible for Customs compliance
within the zone site

12. FTZ Participants

13. FTZ #122
• Grantee – Port of Corpus Christi
• Applied in April 1984
• Approved in September 1985
• First continental zone with refinery
subzones
• 19 approved sites
• All Port Corpus Christi property and
facilities are included in the boundaries of
the general purpose area

14. FTZ #122 Operators
• Valero Refining
•
•
•
•
•
Citgo Refining
Flint Hills Resources
BTB Refining
Sherwin Alumina
TOR Minerals
• International
Resistive Company
(IRC)
• Kiewit Offshore Services
• Gulf Marine Fabricators
• Baker Hughes Drilling
Fluids
• Halliburton Energy
Services
• Excalibar Minerals
• Gavilon Fertilizer
• Port Corpus Christi

15. FTZ #122

16. Alternative Site Framework (ASF)
• Adopted by FTZ Board in 2009
• Provides greater flexibility in providing
zone status
• Streamlines the process for getting FTZ
status
• Port Corpus Christi reorganized under
the ASF in 2013

17. FTZ #122 Service Area