Foreign Trade Zone Gains Wide Support

In rapid-fire testimony that won the admiration of the hearings officer, Spokane officials on Thursday unanimously endorsed forming a foreign trade zone at Spokane International Airport, the adjacent business park and Felts Field Airport.

A trade zone, they said, would add to the list of pluses the area can use to attract new businesses, or retain those already here.

John Da Ponte Jr., the executive secretary of the Foreign Trade Zones Board who conducted the hearing, said zones allow businesses to minimize or avoid duties on some goods brought into the United States.

Those savings give cities an additional economic edge in the world market, he said.

“The whole objective is to help communities attract jobs, and become more competitive nationally and internationally,” he said.

There are more than 200 zones in the U.S. Many, said Spokane Area Economic Development Council President Bob Cooper, are in other Northwest cities competing with Spokane for new businesses.

Potential recruits always ask about incentives, he said. Spokane, already handicapped by Washington’s constitutional prohibition against economic assistance to business, is further impeded by the lack of a trade zone, he said.

“It’s part of the infrastructure we can sell to potential investors,” agreed Steve Odom, Washington’s managing director for trade and market development.

The state has attracted $3 billion in foreign investment in the last year, he added.

Rep. George Nethercutt said economic success depends on a partnership of public and private, local and federal officials.

A trade zone is an ideal example of such cooperation, he said.

Airport Director John Morrison said Wagstaff Engineering is among the companies that may want to have the trade zone extended.

The company’s interest was piqued by a recent 235,000-pound shipment of equipment to Saudi Arabia that was handled by a huge Russian cargo plane, he said.

Air freight, he added, is up 16 percent so far this year at the airport, which is among the fastestgrowing in the U.S.

Morrison said the airport, encouraged by local business, has been exploring the possibility of creating a trade zone for two years.

“This application was not done in a vacuum,” he said.

Da Ponte said the trade zone board should complete its review by the middle of next year. The public can comment until Nov. 18.

, DataTimes