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Guidelines for Adjacency Requirement

The FTZ Act and regulations require that zone sites be within or adjacency to a U.S. Customs port of entry, as listed and defined in part 101 of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations (19 CFR §101.3). Each application (Exhibit 2) must explain how the requested sites meet the adjacency requirement. The Customs Service is required to review this point, and the FTZ staff must certify to the Treasury Board member that the requirement is met.

The adjacency requirement can be satisfied if one of the following factors is met:

  1. The zone or subzone site is within the limits of a CBP port of entry (19 CFR §101.3).

  2. The zone or subzone site is within 60 statute miles of the outer limits of a Customs port of entry (19 CFR §101.3).

  3. The zone or subzone site is within 90 minutes’ driving time from the outer limits of a CBP port of entry (19 CFR §101.3) as verified by the CBP Port Director.

  4. For subzones only: if a subzone site does not meet the adjacency requirement based on one of the above three factors, it may alternatively qualify to be considered adjacent if the CBP Port Director agrees that the three special customs oversight factors are met. These factors are listed in the FTZ Board regulations (15 CFR § 400.21 (b)(2)(ii)):

Sec. 400.21 Number and location of zones and subzones.

(2) The ``adjacency'' requirement is satisfied if:

  1. A general-purpose zone is located within 60 statute miles or 90 minutes' driving time from the outer limits of a port of entry;
  2. A subzone meets the following requirements relating to Customs supervision:
    1. Proper Customs oversight can be accomplished with physical and electronic means; and
    2. All electronically produced records are maintained in a format compatible with the requirements of the U.S. Customs Service for the duration of the record period; and
    3. The grantee/operator agrees to present merchandise for examination at a Customs site selected by Customs when requested, and further agrees to present all necessary documents directly to the Customs oversight office.