- country
- United States
- incentives
- Federally authorized program (FTZ Act of 1934) of designated secure sites licensed by the Foreign-Trade Zones Board, located in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, within U.S. customs jurisdiction but treated as outside CBP territory for duty purposes. Benefits: customs duties and federal excise tax deferred on imports until goods enter U.S. commerce; no duties on goods later re-exported; duty reduction via 'inverted tariff' (importer may elect the lower duty rate of finished product vs. components); no duty on scrap/waste/defective parts; reduced/bundled merchandise processing fees ('weekly entry'); state/local inventory tax exemption on foreign and export-bound goods; streamlined customs procedures. Administered by the FTZ Board (chaired by Secretary of Commerce, co-chaired by Secretary of Treasury), with day-to-day oversight by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Note: oriented toward trade/manufacturing/logistics rather than a tech-startup-specific zone, though some local zones (e.g., FTZ 183 Austin) target high-tech and offer startup fee waivers.
- zone type
- sez