Foxconn seeks foreign trade zone

Foxconn Technology Group wants its planned Racine County factory site designated a foreign trade zone — a status that could reduce customs duties on imported materials and cut the company’s costs.

A subsidiary of Foxconn, AFE Inc., has applied for the designation. Notice of the application was published Wednesday in the Federal Register.

If Foxconn’s manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant becomes a foreign trade zone, the company would not pay customs fees on materials it imports and uses in finished products that ultimately are exported.

Foxconn also might be able to reduce the customs fees on some imported components that go into products sold in the United States.

The foreign trade zone program, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, was created to help domestic companies compete in a global marketplace, Jazmine Jurkiewicz said. Jurkiewicz is a trade development representative for the Port of Milwaukee, which oversees the program in 12 southeastern Wisconsin counties.

The zones provide an incentive to keep jobs in the U.S. by reducing companies’ costs on imported components and streamlining their logistics, Jurkiewicz said.

Seven companies in southeastern Wisconsin operate in designated foreign trade zones.

The application for the Foxconn zone says its factory would be used to produce “whiteboard monitors / interactive displays and televisions with and without tuners.”

Foxconn lists 51 different components on which customs duties could be waived or reduced. They include electronic parts for the large liquid-crystal display panels the company plans to build here — parts such as infrared light detecting units for remote controllers and lens sheets for tuner TVs — as well as more commonplace items including plastic bags.

The company’s application to the Commerce Department’s Foreign-Trade Zones Board will be subject to public comment through Jan. 29.