L.A. Free-Trade Zone Could Expand

The free-trade zone in and around the Port of Los Angeles may get a little larger.

The port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners submitted a plan to expand the large free-trade zone that starts around the Los Angeles–Long Beach Customs and Border Protection port of entry and extends all the way to Kern County in spots.

A formal request to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board in Washington, D.C., was filed Dec. 11. Comments for or against the proposal can be made to the board until Feb. 11 by going to www.trade.gov/ftz.

This would mean that more warehouses could be used for goods that enter the country while waiting to be transported to other countries, such as Mexico or Canada.

The area known as Foreign-Trade Zone 202—with 16 permanent and temporary sites encompassing industrial parks and warehouses in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern and Riverside counties—was established as a trade zone in 1994. It has been modified and expanded a number of times over the years. The last time was in April 2009.

The latest free-trade zone modifications would include closing a site in Walnut, Calif., expanding a site in Torrance, Calif., and adding to a location in Long Beach, Calif. Meanwhile, there is a request for a proposed new free-trade zone site in Bakersfield, Calif.

Created by Congress in 1934, foreign-trade zones are a way to defer or eliminate duties on merchandise brought into the United States. Duties are paid if and when the materials enter the domestic market, and no duties are paid if the merchandise is re-exported.—Deborah Belgum

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