Port of Quincy WA joining Foreign Trade Zone

The US Foreign-Trade Zones Board recently issued Order #1764, which approves the reorganization and expansion of the Service Area of Foreign Trade Zone 203 under the “Alternative Site Framework” plan to now include the Port of Quincy and the greater Quincy WA area.

As a result of this order, companies or businesses wanting to locate in the Port of Quincy can now get approved to use the FTZ in 30 days or less.

FTZs were created in the United States to provide special customs procedures to US plants engaged in international trade-related activities. Duty-free treatment is accorded items that are processed in FTZs and then re-exported, and duty payment is deferred on items until they are brought out of the FTZ for sale in the US market. This helps to offset customs advantages available to overseas producers that compete with domestic industry.

By now being included in FTZ 203, a company that locates within the Port of Quincy will be able to realize these benefits or advantages if it uses the FTZ program:

•FTZs are considered to be outside of US Customs Territory for the purpose of customs duty payment.

•Goods entering FTZs are not subject to customs tariffs until the goods leave the zone and are formally entered into US Customs Territory. Merchandise shipped to foreign countries from FTZs is exempt from duty payments.

•There is no time limit on goods stored inside a FTZ, and certain foreign and domestic merchandise held in FTZs may be exempted from state and local inventory taxes. This allows firms to minimize their costs while their products are waiting to be shipped. In addition, quota restrictions are in some cases waived for items entering an FTZ.

•A variety of activities can be conducted in an FTZ, including assembling, packaging, destroying, storing, cleaning, exhibiting, repacking, distributing, sorting, grading, testing, labeling, repairing, combining with foreign or domestic content, or processing.

One of the reasons companies are attracted to Quincy is because of the infrastructure. It includes plentiful, low-cost and green hydroelectric power; fiber optics availability and capacity; abundant supply of water; an ideal location on the Seattle-Chicago main line of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway; and close proximity to Interstate 90 and the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

The Port of Quincy also has an intermodal terminal and rail cargo handling facility on the BNSF mainline. The Intermodal Terminal includes more than 10,000 feet of track and a container maintenance and cleaning facility with nearly 1 million square feet of cold storage warehousing able to provide shippers with distribution, cross-dock, and storage capacity in and out of Washington state.

Additionally, the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal is home to the Pacific Northwest-Chicagoland Express “Cold Train,” which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.

For more information, contact Curt Morris of the Port of Quincy at [email protected] or 509-214-7696.