• Macon Telegraph: Bibb, Monroe, Twiggs get foreign-trade zone status
• Global Atlanta: More Foreign-Trade Zones to Sprout in Georgia
• AJC: Trade Zone Status Can Lift Bottom Line

Global Atlanta: More Foreign-Trade Zones to Sprout in Georgia

Five counties in Georgia have been cleared to establish foreign-trade zones, sites with special U.S. customs regulations that help importers reduce costs and boost competitiveness. Please click here to continue reading.

AJC: Trade Zone Status Can Lift Bottom Line

By Julie Brown

For The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Foreign Trade Zone (GFTZ) recently received approval from the federal government to expand to several sites in middle Georgia. Combined with our already strong presence in metro Atlanta, this green light puts us in a position to provide even more Georgia companies with unique opportunities to decrease the cost of importing and exporting finished goods and raw materials.

Foreign Trade Zones have been around in Georgia for decades and have involved hundreds of companies and impacted thousands of jobs. Yet, we believe that the GFTZ remains an underutilized opportunity – especially in light of today’s troubled economy and unemployment rates in excess of ten percent. It is vital more than ever for Georgia companies now to take advantage of every opportunity to improve their bottom lines.

And that’s what we’re all about. The cost-saving opportunities facilitated by the Foreign-Trade Zone program are easy to use and extremely meaningful -- yet many business leaders do not know enough about the program to understand fully how they could benefit from participating in it. In order to address that issue, here are answers to the two most important questions about the Foreign-Trade Zone opportunity: What is it? And can it help my company?

A Foreign-Trade Zone is a site—typically an individual manufacturing or distribution facility—where the federal government allows foreign goods and materials to be admitted without being subject to formal customs entry procedures or the payment of customs duties. These sites are considered outside of the customs territory of the United States. And while there are numerous benefits from that allowance, there are two primary advantages stemming from having Foreign-Trade Zone status.

First, Foreign-Trade Zones can help you lower your businesses’ tax bite. Businesses don’t pay tariffs until goods leave Foreign-Trade Zones. Some products never incur duty fees – including goods sold outside the US. The second benefit extends virtually to any warehouse or distribution facility that fills out Customs Entry reports. Facilities with Foreign-Trade Zone status are only required to submit one comprehensive Customs Entry report per week, thus decreasing expensive administrative overhead.

The process for applying for inclusion in this program is straight-forward and generally takes between six and nine months. Costs are minimal; GFTZ is a non-profit organization.

There is a catch, and you should know it up front. The Foreign-Trade Zone program is not a glorified tax loophole. The goal of the United States Foreign-Trade Zone program is to stimulate economic growth and development in the United States. The program aims to encourage companies to maintain and expand their operations in the United States. So, in order to qualify for Foreign-Trade Zone status, a company must show how this opportunity will benefit the local economy.

If your company wants to save money on tariffs and reduce administrative costs—and if you’re interested in growing in Georgia—the GFTZ is a terrific opportunity for you to explore. And now, in more communities than ever before, we at the Georgia Foreign Trade Zone are able to help that happen.

Julie Brown is the President and CEO of the Georgia Foreign Trade Zones. For more information: www.georgiaftz.com.