By Jeff Lipton
In foreign trade zones, manufacturers can import components of the products they produce duty-free, as long as the final products are then exported overseas for sale. Supporters of the zone said the plan will lead to more jobs, a stronger tax base and greater opportunities for expansion.
Importing or exporting through a foreign trade zone can reduce costs, improve return on investment through a reduction in tariffs and improve cash flow.
Suozzi has been pushing hard for a zone for Inwood, and recently called on Schumer, a strong federal ally who, on Monday, wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and the secretary of commerce, Donald L. Evans, urging them to help expedite the process and give final approval to the application so Inwood can be designated a foreign trade zone. They hope to gain the designation by the second quarter of 2004.
Schumer joined Suozzi at a hastily arranged press conference on Monday to spell out the details of the plan. They held the conference in front of Long Island Party Rentals, at 175 Roger Ave. in Inwood, which occupies a county-owned building. The parcel could be a centerpiece for the economic foreign trade plan, officials said. A neighbor, Expeditors, a major international import/export company, is in negotiations to purchase the property, county officials said. The company is planning to expand and double its workforce.
Inwood is the perfect place for a foreign trade zone because it is located close to John F. Kennedy Airport and has a surplus of underutilized commercial real estate, officials said.
We want to be able to compete with businesses around the world, Schumer said. Here in Nassau we have the best labor force, I would say, in the country. It's well-educated, it's hard-working. It's people who want to work. It's people who have to work. They have to pay all the bills.
Today, we have something that will help us bring new jobs to Nassau County, good-paying jobs.
He explained that foreign trade zones are areas on U.S. soil where foreign and domestic merchandise are considered to be part of international commerce. You can bring goods here, enhance them, assemble them, and not pay any kinds of duties, excise taxes, whatever, and then ship them abroad. The location, right here in Inwood, right near Kennedy Airport, makes this an ideal site for a free trade zone.
Doing business internationally has become more and more important to many Nassau County businesses, Schumer added. Here, in Nassau County, we do high-end businesses oftentimes, involved in electronics, defense, involved in other things that lend themselves to export, but we don't want to have to pay duties, tariffs and taxes and all those other things which put these at a competitive disadvantage. So setting up the foreign trade zone in Inwood would help Nassau companies by offsetting the customs advantages that are now available to overseas competitors, but not available to companies here É This one is going to be a success.
Suozzi said the county's property tax base is the same as it was in early 1990. We've stopped growing, he said. There's very few opportunities left to grow in Nassau County. So it's important that we recycle and reuse properties that we have and put them back to more productive use.
He called a foreign trade zone in Inwood one of the great opportunities to continue to grow in Nassau County.
Encouraging exporting and importing would make the county more important in the global economy, Suozzi added. There are 13 foreign trade zones in New York state. Nassau County is not one of them. It doesn't make sense. Here we are close to an international airport, which is a great benefit when you want to travel, but for the people who live in this area it is also a pain in the neck, because of the traffic that comes through and the planes flying overhead. But let's get more benefit out of having Kennedy Airport in this area. A foreign trade zone would do that. A foreign trade zone would help more businesses to locate in this area.
Expeditors does billions of dollars of commerce each year, Suozzi said. We want to see that happen in other properties here in the Inwood area, he said. We should take advantage of the fact that we have an industrial park right next door to Kennedy Airport and capitalize on that, and creating a foreign trade zone would help to do that.
Matt Crosson, president of the Long Island Association, said that during the past two years, Long Island lost 13,000 manufacturing jobs. A lot of the work that could be done in a free trade zone is manufacturing, assembly and work of that kind, he said.
About 50 years ago, almost 40 percent of Long Island's economy was in manufacturing, as compared with 7 percent now, Crosson said. Doing things like this is what the future of Long Island is going to be about, he said.
A zone has already been established in Suffolk County, which has created 500 jobs on 52 acres and is working at 98 percent of capacity. That one is near Islip Airport, and guess what, Kennedy Airport is the place to be, Schumer said. This zone, I think, has even more potential than the Suffolk zone.
Free trade zones employ about 300,000 people across the country, he said. Schumer said he would not be surprised if establishing a foreign trade zone in Inwood would bring hundreds of jobs, but is hopeful it would bring thousands.
Nassau County officials are still angry over the state Legislature's refusal to name Inwood an Empire Zone, which would have given businesses major tax incentives to encourage business and industry to re-locate in the community.
Jesse Dobrinksy, owner of Cargo Connection Logistics in Inwood, applauded plans for the trade zone. I think it's a great plan if they could put it into action, he said.
He said if the plan moves forward, he will move 100 employees currently working in a Queens facility back to Inwood, which would help boost the economy.
I am confident we will get federal approval. We just want to get it fast, Schumer said.
