Third Party Logistics - Less Than Truckload - Supply Chain Management - Trucking - Foreign Trade Zone - Warehousing
Foreign Trade Zone #189 Columbian Logistics Network general purpose operator
Columbian Logistics Network is the general purpose operator of the Kent - Ottawa - Muskegon Counties' Foreign Trade Zone. The Foreign Trade Zone is located at two of CLN's facilities, Columbian Distribution Services, 900 Hall Street SW, Grand Rapids, MI and Columbian Interstate Services, 2900 Dixie Street, Grandville, MI. All of the services provided by CLN as described in the website are available for Foreign Trade Zone users.
Foreign Trade Zones are treated as being outside of the United States. Under Foreign Trade Zone procedures, foreign and domestic merchandise may be admitted into the zone without being subject to formal Customs entry procedures, the payment of customs duties or the payment of federal taxes.
Within the Foreign Trade Zone merchandise may be:
assembled
destroyed
sampled
stored
relabeled
cleaned
processed
mixed
repackaged
salvaged
repaired
manipulated
Advantages of utilizing the Foreign Trade Zone are:
Deferral of Duties - Custom duties are paid only when and if merchandise is transferred into U.S. Customs territory. Products may stay in the zone indefinitely. Instead of companies directing money toward Customs duties for their products, they have extra money for other purposes. This benefit equates to cash flow savings.
Elimination of Duties - No customs duties are paid on merchandise exported from a Foreign Trade Zone. Without a Foreign Trade Zone, the company importing a product must pay the import tax. However, if the imported product is exported back out of the U.S., no duty is ever paid.
Quotas - United States Quota restrictions do not apply to merchandise admitted to zones, though quotas will apply if and when the merchandise is subsequently entered into U.S. Commerce.
Weekly Entry Savings - Weekly Entry is allowed only for Foreign Trade Zone users. Weekly Entry procedures allow the Foreign Trade Zone customer to file only one Customs Entry per week, instead of filing one for every shipment. Foreign Trade Zone users do not have to pay for the processing of multiple entries. Instead, they only have to pay for one form per week.
