Friday, August 15, 2003
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Friday, August 15, 2003 |
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FTZ active in industrial park By CAROLYN
CARY
About five years go the Development Authority of Peachtree City and the Peachtree City Council looked into having a Free Trade Zone in its city. Having an FTZ allows companies importing certain goods to either defer or delay the application of reduced import duties. These Zones are Congressionally approved and the process is quite detailed. Currently, there are only five in Georgia: the Brunswick and Savannah ports, Hartsfield International Airport, Bainbridge, and the Peachtree City Industrial Park. Former mayor Bob Lenox spearheaded the effort and after working through numerous challenges, the entire Peachtree City Industrial Park became an extension of the Hartsfield Zone. Some of the advantages of FTZ include storage of import/export goods without full customs or government taxes and formalities, duty-free inventory management, control distribution and manufacturing and United States Customs clearance and United States Department of Agriculture services are available. Working through the Georgia State Foreign Trade Zone office, the Peachtree City officials met with representatives of the Hipage Company, who built a warehouse facility in the Peachtree City Industrial Zone. It is a 27-year-old company serving as a customhouse broker and international freight forwarders. The first customer of Hipage is Aventure International Aviation Services, who relocated its facilities and offices to the Peachtree City Industrial Park Foreign Trade Zone. Aventure provides international marketing representation and consultant services to companies who are eager to broaden their customer base. It also supplies aviation parts and manages maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft components on behalf of customers.
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