International Business to Bring Growing Green Operation to Anderson, IN

A five-person team from Variety Global Business (VGB) Group spent the past three days in Anderson, IN where the company is considering a manufacturing and distribution center. At a time when much U.S. manufacturing has moved to Asia, John Lin, Founder of VGB, said he wants to bring his Chinese company to Anderson because of the skilled work force and to bring his product closer to his customers.

John Pitre, CEO of VGB’s “starchware” division, said the company has accelerated its timeline and could be operational in Anderson in nine months. VGB has also expanded the scope of the project from 120-140 jobs to around 450 jobs.

VGB produces “starchware,” an alternative to plastic foam products such as Styrofoam, made from corn starch. Pitre said tableware is the kind used at a picnic, while industrial starchware is used for food packaging. VGB claims its starchware is 97.7 percent compostable, and breaks down in just 120 days in a landfill.

Economic Development Director Linda Dawson said city officials put VGB in contact with creative banking experts and an architectural firm. The city also explained Anderson’s foreign trade zones as a designated area of the city that is like a foreign country, noting that most of the former automotive plants have been designated as FTZs. “Plant 9, for example, is not in an FTZ, but if we have an area already designated as an FTZ, we have the ability to swap properties.”

Officials from VGB haves expressed interest in the former General Motors Corp. Plant 20, off 38th Street near Scatterfield Road. But Plant 9, across from the former Guide Corp. property near 38th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is also being considered for short-term operations.

For more information on the decision to manufacture out of Anderson, IN please visit The Herald Bulletin.

Charlotte Regional Partnership Named Grantee for FTZ 57

The Charlotte Regional Partnership has become the grantee and administrator for Foreign Trade Zone 57. Although designated "Mecklenburg County," FTZ 57 extends beyond the county's borders, including sites in Alexander, Cabarrus and Catawba counties.

The N.C. Department of Commerce requested that the public/private economic development organization provide the zone's oversight, so there was more direct regional involvement. Although FTZ 57 is the oldest in the state, it was the only one of the six North Carolina foreign trade zones that wasn't under local control.

"Although we always have promoted the FTZ as one of our regional assets, as the zone's administrator, we can more directly market and grow the foreign trade zone, as we work with existing industry and recruit new businesses to Charlotte USA," said Ronnie Bryant, Charlotte Regional Partnership president and chief executive officer.

Foreign trade zones offer tax and duty advantages to the existing industry and serve as an incentive to attract companies. Since FTZs are legally outside U.S. Customs territory, merchandise from anywhere in the world may enter a foreign trade zone without a formal customs entry or the payment of customs duties or government excise taxes.

Foreign trade zones can be a building or just a room, but they must be within 90 miles of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry. FTZ 57 includes 16 general purpose sites for public use, as well as two subzones that are company exclusive. Several additional sites are pending approval by the U.S. Foreign Trade Zones Board.

Foreign-Trade Zone Bill Passed Both Houses in Baltimore City's Annapolis

This year the City Administration did pretty well in Annapolis - of the 11 cross-filed bills introduced at the administration's request, only one was withdrawn. Seven passed through both the House and Senate, one of which being the Foreign-Trade Zone bill.

This emergency bill brings Baltimore into compliance with the definition of Foreign Trade Zone of the US Department of Commerce. Foreign Trade Zones are like the duty-free shop at the airport, except for companies!

The Baltimore City Paper provides a full list of the eleven bills discussed at this year's session.

Fremont tries home-grown stimulus help

FREMONT — City leaders hope a package of incentives they have crafted can jump-start business activity in Fremont.

The incentives can’t come soon enough for the city’s sizable small-business sector, said Dirk Lorenz, owner of Fremont Flowers and Gifts in the city’s Centerville district. A former member of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, Lorenz said many small-business owners tell him their revenue has dropped 20 percent to 30 percent compared with last year.

City officials hear their pleas. Like their counterparts in the federal government and cities such as Boston, San Francisco and even the tiny burg of Lakeport near Clear Lake, members of the Fremont City Council approved a stimulus package March 3 as a way to counteract one of the worst economic downturns.

The package contains temporary and permanent provisions, including reducing developer impact fees, deferring the collection of those fees, exempting cleantech firms from paying the city’s business license tax, and increasing the city’s efforts to purchase products and services from Fremont businesses. The fee reductions and exemptions for business in the city of will remain in effect until at least Dec. 31, 2011.

Another proposal is to establish a foreign trade zone that would assist the city’s manufacturing sector. If approved the regulations would allow foreign and domestic goods to be brought in without formal customs entry or incurring customs duties, excise taxes or tariffs.

To read the entire article, visit the San Jose Business journal here.

Wolverine World Wide warehouses get foreign trade zone status

When Wolverine World Wide Inc. consolidates all its North American distribution in West Michigan, warehouses here technically will be newly designated foreign trade zones.

Distribution centers in Rockford, Cedar Springs and Howard City are in the new subzone, a free-trade status that will save money and eventually, the company said, add jobs.

"In the past we've had to pay duty upon entrance to the U.S.," said Jeff Gorski, senior director of integrated logistics. "When it hits the Port of Seattle or Long Beach (Calif.), we had to pay duty."

That fee ranged from 8 to 36 percent. Now, boxed pairs of shoes will land in the region's distribution centers duty-free, at least for a while.

"We will not pay duty until we ship them out to our end customer in the U.S.," Gorski said.

And if the shoes are bound for feet beyond U.S. borders, the whole duty-paying exercise is avoided. No duty paid inbound; no duty owed outbound.

"The foreign trade zone is a big thing," company spokeswoman Christi Cowdin said.

It will allow us to bring additional jobs to Michigan in support of that."

Wolverine's distribution centers are in a subzone of the general-purpose foreign trade zone for Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties.

To read the complete article, see the West Michigan Business online.

Insourcing Global Trade Management

Most importers and exporters are careful to manage inventory, tariffs and compliance. In a recent survey of trade consultants conducted by Integration Point, every respondent (100%) indicated that their client companies perform denied party screening and recognize foreign trade zones. However, most outsource this work to consultants, freight forwarders or other third party service providers. The cost of internal automation and process control has been too high for most importers and exporters to do on their own. Acquiring and maintaining a trade management system and data has been too much of a burden for smaller companies to adopt on top of their core business needs within manufacturing, sales and marketing and supplier relations.

To read the full article, visit Industry Week Online at www.Industryweek.com.