Bradley trade zone expanded to five counties

PHOTO | HBJ File The Windsor Locks foreign trade zone is meant to help exporters compete with international companies by avoiding duty payments.

Write a Comment

The 34-year-old Windsor Locks foreign trade zone in the shadow of Bradley International Airport has been expanded to include select lands in the five counties surrounding the facility — Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, Tolland and Windham.

The trade zone is a way for manufacturers and other users of expensive supplies to avoid paying duties on exports and imported products, until they enter the stream of commerce, by storing those goods inside the designated areas. Trade zones are designed to level the playing field for domestic producers of goods to compete with foreign suppliers, said Patrick McMahon, economic development consultant for Windsor Locks.

The U.S. Foreign Trade Zone Board in July approved expansion of the Windsor Locks trade zone — labeled FTZ #71 — to up to 2,000 acres spread throughout the five counties. Previously, the trade zone was only allowed for the original 17-acre site in Crown Industrial Park in Windsor Locks and an additional 390-acre site owned by Griffin Land in Windsor and East Granby.

Any property owner that wants to create a site within the 2,000-aggregate-acre trade zone must pay an initial access fee of $7,500 and an annual fee of $5,000.

“With the growth of Bradley International Airport and the importance of the world economy on our own state and regional economies, this new tool will help companies in the region to grow and prosper,” said Steve Wawruck, Windsor Locks' first selectman.

The Foreign Trade Zone program was established in 1934, and FTZ #71 was created in Windsor Locks in 1981.

— Brad Kane

Caribbean Connections: CT, Jamaica eye non-stop flights, import-export pipeline

Why Bradley won its airport tug-of-war for Aer Lingus