Miami Airport Expands Free Trade Zone Magnet Site
Miami International Airport has been designated a foreign trade zone magnet site by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The designation covers the airport’s entire 3,230 acres and is an expansion of Miami-Dade County’s existing FTZ 281 site.
A FTZ magnet site designation allows existing or prospective airport tenants to operate manufacturing, warehousing and distribution centers on the property and have their federal tariffs deferred, reduced or eliminated.
“The MIA FTZ creates an attractive business opportunity for companies to begin or expand their operations directly on-site at the passenger and cargo gateway of the Americas,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez said.
Miami-Dade County expects that companies handling high-traffic commodities at the airport will apply to be operators in the FTZ. The companies must apply to PortMiami, the grantee of the FTZ 281 and receive approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The airport reported that high-traffic commodities there include pharmaceuticals, electronics, textiles, footwear, auto parts, aircraft parts, machinery equipment and consumer goods and perishables. Miami Airport’s air trade was valued at $57.3 billion in 2016, accounting for more than 90% of Florida’s air trade.
Companies within an FTZ are able to defer paying duties only when product exits the site, reduce duties on combined finished products instead of on each individual product and eliminate duties on products being imported to the site and then exported.
