News & Updates

SEAPORT SPOTLIGHT: Foreign-Trade Zones Play a Key Role in Florida’s Import/Export Activity

September 18, 2023

Florida is a top maritime trade state and home to the world’s largest cruise ports. Today’s mission for each of Florida’s 16 publicly owned seaports is reliable, resilient and ready.

The crisis of the last three years demonstrated that ports and shipping matter greatly for a well-functioning global economy. It has also allowed ports to revitalize their organizations, sharpen their focus, and build teams that are reliable and resilient, and ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead.

Foreign-Trade Zones play a key role in Florida’s import/export activity.

Created in 1934 to encourage international trade, a Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) is a land area located in or near a U.S. port of entry that is legally considered outside the national customs territory.

There are 20 FTZs located in the state of Florida, second only to Texas. FTZs provide economic incentives to companies importing or exporting international goods. Duty-free treatment is applied to items that are re-exported and duty payment is deferred on items sold in the U.S. market.

These savings are advantageous to shippers: one of JAXPORT’s largest FTZ users, Mazda North America Operations, saves approximately $100,000 annually on merchandise processing fees. Collectively, FTZs across the state of Florida supports some 11,000 jobs statewide.