Politics & Government
Riverside County Supervisors Push Pass Into Foreign Trade Zone Request
Beaumont and Calimesa should be a part of an expanded area around Palm Springs International Airport, supervisors request of the federal government.
The cities of Beaumont, Calimesa, Hemet and San Jacinto should be included in any future expansion of a tax-advantaged foreign trade zone centered at Palm Springs International Airport, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.
In a 5-0 vote, the board placed the central county municipalities on a list of places that the county hopes will be encompassed within an enlarged Foreign Trade Zone 236.
The zone is one of four in the county. It currently covers only commercial enterprises located at or in the immediate vicinity of the Palm Springs airport.
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In August, the board forwarded a request to the Obama administration to stretch the boundaries of FTZ 236 to include the entire Coachella Valley, as well as Cabazon and Banning. Today's action brings four more cities into the expansion proposal.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expected to review the request in the next few months.
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Firms with trade zone status are spared paying import duties on products they bring into the country for use in manufacturing. The goods are treated as though they're still outside the United States and not subject to taxes, which are assessed when the finished products go to market.
The zones are monitored by U.S. Customs & Border Protection inspectors, who ensure firms are complying with regulations on foreign trade.
The county's other three trade zones are:
- FTZ 244, along the Interstate 215 corridor in Perris, including parts of Riverside and Moreno Valley;
- FTZ 153, which was recently expanded from northern San Diego County into the southwestern pocket of Riverside County; and
- FTZ 202, which extends from the Port of Los Angeles into the new city of Eastvale.
Federal regulators are also considering a board-endorsed proposal for a fifth foreign trade zone sought in the southern Coachella Valley, mainly on Native American land.
The Four Winds Tribal Coalition is seeking approval of a zone on 3,541 acres of sovereign soil as well as 1,000 acres of public land, including the area around Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal.
The coalition partners -- the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians and the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians -- are following the example of the Tohono O'odham Nation near Tucson, Ariz., which succeeded in obtaining federal approval for a foreign trade zone in the 1990s.
