Focus on Manatee | Port Manatee sweetens its allure with F-T-Z

The letters F-T-Z can spell sweet bonus benefits for companies moving goods through Port Manatee, thanks to the Manatee County seaport’s engagement in a federal program offering deferral, reduction or even elimination of costly U.S. Customs duty payments.

Foreign-Trade Zone No. 169 – or simply FTZ No. 169 – not only encompasses the entire 1,100 acres within Port Manatee’s secure fenced property but, moreover, extends benefits throughout a service area taking in a diameter of 60 miles or 90-minute drive from the port.

Currently, for example, an importer is taking advantage of FTZ benefits for a shipment of 6,400 tons of sugar brought into warehouse facilities of Logistec USA Inc. after arriving by vessel at Port Manatee docks. Whereas the 1-ton supersacks of sugar were offloaded at the port in 2020, duties are not due until the goods move out of the FTZ and into the U.S. marketplace. Indeed, for Customs purposes, the sugar isn’t considered to have entered U.S. soil until it leaves the FTZ.

Another recent example at Port Manatee has involved an aluminum shipment from Argentina which arrived at Port Manatee in late 2019 but did not count against import quota quantities until leaving the FTZ in 2020.

For commodities with considerable market price fluctuations – such as sugar and aluminum – this can prove particularly beneficial for importing companies. And, in cases in which imported items are brought into an FTZ and subsequently exported to a foreign country, U.S. Customs duties may be entirely eliminated. Activities conducted in an FTZ may also include assembly, testing, sampling, relabeling, repackaging, display, repair, cleaning, manufacture, processing, salvage or even destruction – typically with no duties paid in the later instance.

FTZ No. 169, for which Port Manatee is grantee, was established in 1990 and is one of 20 active FTZs in Florida, according to the latest report to Congress from the Foreign-Trade Zones Board. Only Texas, with 33 such zones, has more FTZs. The report says $767 billion in total merchandise was received in the nation’s 193 active FTZs in 2019.

On a national basis, the FTZ program was launched in 1934 through legislation aimed at mitigating destructive impacts of recently imposed tariffs. In fact, the Foreign-Trade Zones Act of 1934 specifically states that FTZs are designed to “expedite and encourage foreign commerce” in the United States – and objective that meshes with Port Manatee’s mission to be “a powerful catalyst of countywide economic growth and hub of trade-related activity.”

FTZ No. 169 is one of numerous implements in Port Manatee’s figurative toolbox of commercial incentives for customers, joining multiple business development districts and such unique attributes as the International Trade Hub at Port Manatee, as well as, of course, the highly personalized attention to service furnished by the port’s marketing and operations teams.

Port Manatee’s senior manager of trade development, Malcolm Edwards, counts FTZ No. 169 among his responsibilities and stands ready to discuss how the zone may offer advantages to both current and prospective port users. He may be reached by email at medwards@portmanatee.com or by phone at 941-722-6621.

In challenging times like these, when business leaders are seeking to avail themselves of every opportunity to hold onto as much working capital as they can, take advantage of all possible savings and secure every competitive edge, Port Manatee, through its FTZ No. 169, looks to further extend the allure of its Southwest and Central Florida gateway, in turn building upon its record cargo flows and adding to its impressive economic impacts of more than $3.9 billion a year, directly and indirectly supporting more than 27,000 jobs.

Carlos Buqueras is executive director of Port Manatee.