PORT HUENEME : Site Gains Upgraded Foreign Trade Status

In an effort to boost trade and increase jobs, Oxnard Harbor District officials announced Monday that the Port of Hueneme has been named the 205th foreign trade zone port in the nation.

The designation, made by the U. S. Department of Commerce, allows foreign shippers to move goods to one of three harbor district-owned sites in Ventura County where products, such as cars, can be stored, prepared for market or customized without the owner of the products paying duty for them.

Once the shipper or manufacturer moves the products to market, they would then pay duty fees to the U. S. Customs Service.

Trade zone sites include the seaport, parts of the U. S. Navy’s Construction Battalion Center, a downtown Oxnard freezer facility and an industrial park site in south Oxnard, officials said.

The new status “will add a great deal of flexibility to our international customers’ operations,” said Raymond E. Fosse, president of the Oxnard Harbor District Board of Harbor Commissioners. “It’s a solid incentive for foreign companies to utilize American workers in preparing their goods for the U. S. market.”

Kam Quarles, a spokesman for the district, said officials first learned that foreign trade zone status had been granted to the port late last Friday. The decision capped a yearlong effort by the district, he said.

Quarles said the port, which contributes an estimated $275 million to the Ventura County economy, will be the only deep-water foreign trade zone port between the ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach and San Francisco.

“We believe this will move us into the forefront of international trading,” Quarles said. “We’re very excited. I think we will see a very healthy increase in business with our new designation.”