Your company may benefit from foreign-trade zone status if even only one of the following criteria applies:

• Do you import high-value products?
• Do you import a product in high volume?
• Do you export?
• Is expedited delivery important to you?
• Do you receive multiple shipments in a week?
• Are your products subject to import quotas?
• Do you currently apply for duty drawback?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone program might be a way for your company to reduce paperwork, improve cash flow, increase flexibility and save time.

• Duty Deferral: delay payments of duties until the inventory leaves the zone
  
• Duty Reduction: pay the lower of the component or finished product duty rates
  
• Duty Elimination: eliminate duty on products that are re-exported, rejected, scrapped or destroyed
  
• Direct Delivery: bypass congestion at sea ports by applying for authority to receive product, break seals and clear customs within the FTZ facility
  
• Weekly Entry: reduce merchandise processing fees by combining shipments on one entry filed weekly
  
• No Import Quotas: inventory stored in an FTZ is not subject to import quotas

Merchandise entering a zone may be:

• Assembled
• Tested
• Sampled
• Relabeled
• Manufactured (with special approval from the FTZ Board)
• Repackaged
• Destroyed
• Mixed
• Manipulated
• Stored
• Salvaged
• Processed
• Cleaned