Dooley, Slay target bigger foreign trade zone
St. Louis Business Journal
October 4, 2010
St. Louis city and county officials gathered Monday to start the process of expanding the region's duty-free, Foreign Trade Zone, to include all of both entities to accommodate international trade, particularly with China.
County Executive Charlie Dooley and Mayor Francis Slay signed a letter of support Monday to the U.S. Department of Commerce asking for the expansion under the Alternate Site Framework option, meant to streamline the application process.
The change needs approval by the Commerce Department and St. Louis Port Authority.
Foreign Trade Zones are restricted-access sites that are considered outside U.S. Customs territory. Companies that operate in the zones can defer, reduce or eliminate Customs duties on foreign products admitted into zones for storage, exhibition, assembly, manufacturing and processing.
"The expansion of the Foreign-Trade Zone provides the region a real advantage as we continue to work together to develop future job growth through increased economic activity with China and other countries," Dooley said in a statement. The approved expansion will allow increased jobs and investment and give the region a stronger global presence, he said.
"Foreign-Trade Zones are growing in importance as a result of our increasingly global economy," Slay said, and are "an important step in leveling the economic playing field."
The St. Louis zone is among the first of 274 zones nationwide, and is the first in Missouri, to apply for such an expansion, officials said. Only 13 of the 274 zones have been approved to date.
The application, which has been filed, can take up to eight months to be approved, but businesses in the city and county can apply for the new FTZ option immediately, officials said.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, administers the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones program.
Chinese officials plan to visit St. Louis again later this month in a trip that could make or break local leaders' efforts to establish a trade hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Mike Jones, leader of the Midwest-China Hub Commission, said recently.
