There are two Foreign Trade Zones in Lubbock.  Please contact Warren Warner at the Lubbock EDA for additional information.

What is a Foreign Trade Zone?

Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) are industrial sites on or near Ports of Entry.  FTZs are activated and under the regulation of the U.S. Customs Service. Under FTZ procedures, the usual customs entry procedures and payment of duties are not required on foreign merchandise until it enters Customs territory for domestic consumption.

Any foreign or domestic merchandise, not prohibited by law, whether durable or not, may be admitted into an FTZ. Because FTZs are considered outside of the customs territory, requirements that would otherwise apply to imported merchandise are suspended as long as the merchandise remains inside of the FTZ.
Merchandise subject to quota restrictions may be admitted into a FTZ until such time the quota on entry is removed or merchandise may be manufactured or manipulated in the FTZ into a product not subject to quota. This manufacturing/manipulation activity is subject, in certain situations, to government approval.

Foreign and domestic merchandise permitted in a FTZ may be stored, sold, exhibited, broken-up, repacked, assembled, distributed, sorted, graded, cleaned, mixed with foreign or domestic merchandise, otherwise manipulated, destroyed, or manufactured. Machinery and equipment that is imported for use within a FTZ is not exempt from payment of duties.

What are the benefits of using a FTZ?

• All foreign merchandise located within a FTZ or Sub Zone is exempt from local/state ad valorum and property taxes for as long as it remains in the Zone. The only taxes due are the import duties when it ships from the Zone into U.S. commerce (U.S. Customs duties).

• Imported merchandise re-exported from a Zone leaves duty-free.  Foreign merchandise that is scrapped with proper documentation within the FTZ is not subject to import duties.

• An importer working in a Zone can bring into the Zone quota-restricted merchandise and store that merchandise in the Zone until the quota restrictions are lifted. There is no limit on the time imported merchandise can be stored in a Zone.

• For those foreign suppliers of manufacturers “Just-in-Time” (JIT) inventory operations, FTZs offer those suppliers a local storage site allowing for cost-effective, better-timed deliveries. The foreign supplier can store their goods tax-free until its customer takes delivery of these FTZ- stored inventories per their manufacturing schedules.