Union County’s inclusion in a reorganized foreign trade zone could help promote economic development by reducing businesses’ import costs, local and state officials say.

In a statement released Wednesday, Union County Development Board Executive Director Andrena Powell-Baker announced Supervisor Tommy Sinclair had signed a letter of support for Union County being included within the Service Area of Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) No. 38. Powell-Baker writes the Ports Authority is in the process of reorganizing FTZ 38 which will also include Cherokee, Oconee and Anderson counties. Greenville, Spartanburg and Laurens counties are already in the FTZ service area.

Powell-Baker said the application process takes approximately nine months and — when approved — the Ports Authority will be able to serve sites within the county based on business’s trade-related needs. The FTZ will be operated as a public utility but its designation of specific sites for service will not have an impact on state/local tax collections and the county will not incur any costs.

Suzan Carroll-Ramsey, Foreign-Trade Zone Manager for the South Carolina State Ports Authority, said that inclusion in the service area can benefit both new and existing businesses by helping reduce importation costs.

“It can help attract businesses or it can benefit existing companies by helping them save money,” Carroll-Ramsey said. “It’s a program that benefits importers, it’s basically about custom duties and fees, their deferral or elimination.

“Fuji Film Manufacturing makes QuickSnap cameras in Greenwood,” she said. “All of their raw materials they import to make those cameras they bring them in as goods and the finished product is duty free. If they weren’t in the zone they would have to pay duties on those materials and the cameras.”

Carroll-Ramsey added BMW and its suppliers also make use of the designation to reduce their importation costs.

Sinclair said he wrote the letter after being notified by Carroll-Ramsey that Timken had requested inclusion in the application for the reorganization of FTZ 38. He said he feels inclusion in the service area will make Union County more competitive in retaining existing and attracting new businesses.

“It allows them (businesses) to be more competitive which allows us to be more competitive and attractive to industry,” Sinclair said. “Industry means jobs.”