Foreign Trade Zone

Foreign-Trade Zone has been designated for Otoe County and will be partnering with Lancaster and Seward Counties to be part of Foreign Trade Zone #59.  Two Thousand Acres (2,000) have been allotted to FTZ #59 and those will be allocated based on requests by the businesses making the application. As a County, we will not be restricted to one specific area for a zone, nor is there a lid on the number of zones.  For example there could be zones in every district of the county if a qualifying company was located there.  A company must be the actual applicant for the FTZ on their property.  

Foreign-Trade Zones are restricted-access sites that are considered outside the U.S. Customs territory.  Companies that operate in foreign-trade zones can defer, reduce, or eliminate Customs duties on foreign products admitted into zones for storage, exhibition, assembly, manufacture and processing.  Customs duties are not paid on products and materials exported from foreign-trade zones; they are paid only on products entered into U.S. Customs territory.  Zone users may elect to pay the duty rate applicable to either the original foreign material or the finished product manufactured from the foreign material, whichever is lower. No duties are owed on scrap/waste.  Zones provide the opportunity to reduce cycle time by expediting the receipt of foreign sourced material and filing summary entries only once per week.  This makes many U.S. operations more cost-competitive with overseas operations.