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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.
Links
Kent-Ottawa-Muskegon Foreign Trade Zone
http://gvsu.edu/komftz/
Van Andel Global Trade Center
http://gvsu.edu/vagtc/
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