Owen Tucker Smith | Wall Street Journal
Foreign-trade zones enable companies to defer tariffs on imported goods and materials, for a while
SKU Distribution had just one customer last year at its Mesa, Ariz., warehouse. This year, it is teeming with new business from companies storing items such as aluminum poles, ice picks, carabiners and firearm safes.
That is because the warehouse is the ultimate U.S.-based tariff refuge. The 110,000-square-foot building sits in a foreign-trade zone, meaning companies can import products tariff-free while they are stored or used to assemble other goods at the warehouse. That allows companies to avoid paying duties until the products are shipped out to U.S. buyers.
“Everyone is getting educated on it now,” said James Peacock, SKU’s chief executive. “We’re growing like mad.”
