history about inzone bonded warehouse or ftz? what about my company?

The primary aim of the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone program is to stimulate economic growth and development in the United States. The Foreign-Trade Zone program was created to advance American competitiveness by enjoining U.S. companies to maintain and expand their domestic operations.

The Foreign-Trade Zone program fosters domestic operations by expunging certain regulatory hurdles and disincentives inherent to manufacturing within the United States.

Furthermore, Foreign-Trade Zones benefit the community at-large due to the retention of jobs, capital, infrastructure and tax-base.

So how does my company get involved in the Foreign-Trade Zone program?

There are two types of Foreign-Trade Zones, a General-Purpose Zone (GPZ) and a Subzone.

As a General-Purpose Zone User, your company would commit operations to general purpose site(s) established and operated by the local Foreign-Trade Zone. These sites are established for multiple activities by multiple users, such as industrial parks, international airports, deep water ports, or single buildings. Certain activities, such as processing or manufacturing, would require special permission from the Foreign-Trade Zones Board.

As a General-Purpose Zone Operator, your company fosters a third-party agreement with the local Foreign-Trade Zone to offer your General-Purpose Zone space to other companies for the sake of their operational needs. All the advantages of operating in a General-Purpose Zone are available to the companies to whom you offer your space.

A Subzone is granted to a company that wishes to establish foreign-trade zone status for its own plant or facility operations when the existing general-purpose zone cannot provide the adequate facility to accomodate the company's activities. There is no legal difference between the activities undertaken in a General-Purpose Zone and those in a Subzone. In short, a Subzone would be granted for an individual company's manufacturing operations, and the subzone must be situated so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can readily fulfill its duties of oversight of the Subzone.