Now is the Time to Re Evaluate Establishing a Foreign Trade Zone

Now is the Time to Re Evaluate Establishing a Foreign Trade Zone

The Otay Mesa Chamber recently engaged with the City of San Diego to learn more about the Foreign Trade Zone and why more companies are not using it and frankly, we think it’s because in many cases, business owners just don’t know the advantages of this program. 

The bottom line is that it has a lot more flexibility than a bonded warehouse, you can efficiently store foreign sourced, Customs duty paid, and domestic merchandise and you can store merchandise with no time limit, which is very valuable nowadays since “just in time “does not seem to be the way to go, meaning importers need to have more inventory nearby because of supply chain disruptions, something very important for our growing manufacturing sector in Baja. There are a wide range of other FTZ benefits not generally available in bonded warehouses.

These are some of the benefits when using the zone “southbound” but we also know many large warehouses and manufactures use it “northbound” when importing their final products into California and export to other countries. The primary advantage is the FTZ weekly entry procedure. 

Yes, it requires time and expense to establish a zone. 

The question is….Is it worth it for your business to set up a zone? We have an upcoming webinar where you can learn more about the program and also follow up with a free one hour evaluation with the law firm of Miller & Co. – Marshall Miller is otherwise known as the “Father of the Foreign Trade Zones.” program. The webinar is free of charge and we hope you take advantage of this opportunity.