Foreign-Trade Zones, analyzed.
Independent commentary on the FTZ program: what the national data shows, what the savings calculators leave out, and what actually matters to companies weighing a zone and the administrators who run them.
How Long Does It Actually Take to Get Into an FTZ?
Timeline expectations, honestly set, for companies ready to move.
Read →What the Top-Performing FTZs Do Differently: Five Patterns From the National Data
Lessons from the 2024 rankings for every zone that is not yet on them.
Read →The Dormant Zone Playbook: Reactivating the Federal Asset Your Community Already Owns
For the 63 communities holding approved-but-inactive FTZ grants, and the dozens more with zones running far below potential.
Read →The Real Cost of Operating an FTZ: The Numbers Nobody Publishes
Savings calculators are everywhere. Cost calculators do not exist. Here is why, and here is the missing half of the analysis.
Read →Why Your Section 301 Tariffs Don't Disappear in an FTZ (And What a Zone Still Does for You)
The article every FTZ savings calculator hopes you won't read.
Read →Who Runs the Zone? Solving the FTZ Key-Person Problem
For companies weighing an FTZ, and the zone administrators who talk to them.
Read →The Economic Development Tool Hiding in Plain Sight: Why FTZ Growth Is a Development Strategy
For economic developers, zone grantees, and community leaders.
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