How Many Free Trade Zones Are in the United States?

There are 260 approved Foreign-Trade Zone projects in the United States, and roughly 199 of them are currently active, according to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board’s 86th Annual Report covering calendar year 2024. Every state and Puerto Rico hosts at least one zone. When people ask how many free trade zones are in the United States, they’re almost always asking about this program, formally called Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs), which lets companies bring foreign and domestic goods into designated sites near U.S. ports of entry without paying customs duties upfront.¹

Approved Versus Active Zones

The gap between 260 and 199 matters. An approved zone has received authorization from the FTZ Board but may not have any businesses actually using FTZ procedures yet. An active zone has operations running under U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervision, with merchandise moving in and out under FTZ status.¹

The 260 number also understates the real footprint. Each approved zone project can include multiple physical sites and subzones, so the actual number of locations operating under FTZ procedures is much higher. In 2024, the program covered about 1,300 individual business operations and employed nearly 543,000 workers. Those operations handled $963.8 billion in merchandise during the year: $589.8 billion through production activity and $374 billion through warehouse and distribution activity. Exports from FTZs totaled $133.5 billion.¹

What a Foreign-Trade Zone Actually Is

A Foreign-Trade Zone is a secure area near a U.S. port of entry that is legally treated as outside U.S. customs territory for tariff purposes. Goods sitting in a zone aren’t subject to customs duties or certain federal excise taxes until they leave the zone and enter U.S. commerce. If they’re exported straight from the zone instead, no U.S. duties apply at all.²

Congress created the program in 1934 through the Foreign-Trade Zones Act.³ The Foreign-Trade Zones Board reviews applications and consists of the Secretary of Commerce (who chairs it) and the Secretary of the Treasury. U.S. Customs and Border Protection handles day-to-day oversight through its port directors, who control what merchandise gets admitted, how it’s handled, and when it leaves.⁴

How the 260 Projects Break Down

FTZ projects fall into two main categories, and understanding the split explains why the location count keeps growing without the number of “projects” changing much.

General-Purpose Zones

A general-purpose zone is a multi-user facility, often resembling an industrial park or warehouse complex near a port, airport, or rail hub. Multiple companies lease space to store, distribute, or process goods under FTZ status. Some zone projects also include lots where businesses can build their own facilities within the zone’s boundaries.⁵

Subzones

A subzone is a single-company site approved for a specific operation, typically a manufacturing or processing plant that can’t feasibly relocate to a general-purpose zone. Subzones sit at the company’s own facility but remain under the administrative umbrella of an existing zone’s grantee. Production activity in a subzone requires separate authorization from the FTZ Board before it can start.⁵

Traditional Site Framework and Alternative Site Framework

Since 2012, the FTZ Board has offered an Alternative Site Framework (ASF) alongside the original Traditional Site Framework. Under the ASF, a grantee defines a broader “service area” rather than tying the zone to fixed parcels of land. The entire service area must fall within 60 miles or 90 minutes’ driving time of CBP port-of-entry limits. When a company inside that area wants FTZ status, the grantee can designate a new site through a simplified boundary modification without swapping acreage from existing sites.⁶

ASF sites carry sunset limits. A designated site that goes unused for three to five years loses its designation, and zones under the ASF are subject to a 2,000-acre activation limit. That design replaced an older model in which grantees sometimes designated speculative sites that never attracted a single user.⁶

Where the Zones Are

Every state plus Puerto Rico has at least one approved zone. Zones cluster around major ports, international airports, and inland cargo hubs, since ASF service areas and traditional zone sites both have to sit within roughly 60 miles or 90 minutes’ drive of a CBP port of entry.⁶ CBP maintains a location list for its port offices that oversee FTZ activity, and the FTZ Board publishes the current roster of approved projects in its annual reports.²

Why the Count Is Getting More Attention

Interest in the FTZ program has spiked sharply since 2025 as new tariffs raised import costs. Companies that previously dismissed FTZs as unnecessary overhead have started exploring them as a way to defer or reduce duty payments, and industry groups have reported record membership levels.

One caveat is worth flagging before anyone assumes joining a zone will erase a new tariff bill. Special tariffs imposed under Section 232 (steel and aluminum) and Section 301 (China-origin goods) generally cannot be avoided through the inverted tariff election, because they are assessed on the imported components themselves. An April 2025 executive order went further, requiring that goods falling under reciprocal tariffs be placed in “privileged foreign” status upon admission to a zone, which locks in the tariff classification and rate at entry and blocks the usual ability to reclassify components as a lower-rate finished product after manufacturing inside the zone. Duty deferral and other compliance benefits remain, but the special tariff charges do not simply vanish inside an FTZ.

Joining an Existing Zone Rather Than Counting a New One

For most companies, the practical question isn’t how many zones exist but whether any of the 260 already covers their location. Joining an existing zone is far faster than establishing a new one. A company contacts the local grantee, usually a port authority, economic development agency, or similar public entity, and applies for space in a general-purpose zone or requests subzone designation for its own facility. Before any merchandise moves under FTZ procedures, CBP must approve activation of the site, and the local CBP port director oversees that step.⁴

Under the Alternative Site Framework, adding a company site inside an existing service area can be handled as a minor boundary modification, processed in 30 days from a complete request. Subzone applications typically run three to five months, and full production applications can take around 12 months when a public hearing or industry survey is involved.⁷

Whether the program pays off depends on import volume, duty rates, and how much of the merchandise is re-exported or covered by special tariffs that override the inverted tariff benefit. As a rough benchmark, the program tends to pay for itself when a company imports at least several million dollars in merchandise annually. That threshold, more than the raw count of 260, is usually what determines whether one of the existing zones is worth using.

1
International Trade Administration. Foreign-Trade Zones Board 86th Annual Report
2
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Foreign Trade Zone Locations
3
govinfo.gov. Act of June 18, 1934 – Foreign Trade Zones Act
4
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. About Foreign-Trade Zones and Contact Info
5
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. What Is a Foreign-Trade Zone
6
International Trade Administration. The U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Program – Information for CBP
7
International Trade Administration. FTZ Case Processing Times