Foreign Trade Zone

A Foreign Trade Zone is a restricted-access site, in or adjacent to a Customs Port of Entry, operated pursuant to public utility principles under the sponsorship of a corporation granted authority by the FTZ Board located in Washington D.C. and under supervision of the US Customs and Border Protection. FTZ's are treated, for the purposes of tariff laws and custom entry procedures, as being outside the Custom territory of the United States. Under FTZ procedures, foreign and domestic merchandise may be admitted into Zones for operations such as: storage, exhibition, assembly, manufacture, and processing, without being subject to formal custom entry procedures, the payments of Customs duties or the payments of Federal and Excise Taxes.