McAllen FTZ Extends Service Area to Willacy County

FTZ News: Foreign-Trade Zone No. 12 can now serve businesses in Willacy County and Port Mansfield after the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board approved an expansion of its service area. The decision came after a review that lasted about 13 months, according to the Rio Grande Guardian.

Mark E. Garcia, the zone’s president and CEO, told the Willacy County Commissioners Court that the process of getting a site up and running could take three to six months, compared with roughly a year before.

The expansion comes as McAllen FTZ looks to develop more industrial property elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley. The zone and the city of McAllen acquired about 1,500 acres in North McAllen, near the former Moore Air Base. Infrastructure work on the property is still in its early stages. Local officials have also fielded interest in clean-energy and data-center projects in Willacy County, where wind farms have helped attract new development.

For Willacy County, the expanded service area gives local officials another option when courting manufacturers and logistics companies. Businesses will still need to obtain the necessary site designation and activation before using FTZ procedures. Those procedures can allow companies to defer duties on imported goods and, depending on how the goods are handled and where they are shipped, reduce or avoid duties on re-exports.

The North McAllen development is a separate project, not part of the Willacy County expansion. If developed, it would add industrial space to the zone’s existing holdings. For now, the immediate change is that Willacy County businesses can explore FTZ benefits without having to wait for another expansion of the zone’s service area./.