The Santa Teresa Business Center falls within Foreign-Trade Zone No. 197. Products brought into a foreign-trade zone are afforded privileges with regard to US Customs policies that can result in dramatic operational cost savings. These privileges are summarized as follows: Under the Foreign-Trade Zone Act, foreign and domestic merchandise may be admitted into a foreign-trade zone without: Formal Customs entry Payment of Customs duties general US quota restrictions payment of government excise taxes thorough examination Merchandise brought into a foreign-trade zone may be: stored tested cleaned sampled relabeled repackaged displayed repaired manipulated mixed processing assembled manufactured salvaged destroyed re-exported If the merchandise is re-exported no US customs or excise tax is ever paid. If the merchandise is imported into the US but outside of the foreign-trade zone, US Customs duties and excise tax are due at the time the merchandise is physically removed from the foreign-trade zone. The duty paid is at the rate of the finished product or imported parts whichever is lower. Importing merchandise into a foreign-trade zone can offer many cost and logistical benefits including the following: Imported merchandise can be stored for an indefinite time period and displayed for potential buyers ensuring a sufficient quantity of marketable merchandise will be available for sale. Imported merchandise can be counted, weighted, tested, repaired, or destroyed prior to the payment of customs duty, ensuring an accurately invoiced quantity of sellable merchandise is brought to market. If imported merchandise will be subject to a quota, such merchandise can be manipulated or processed in such a manner so as to create a product not subject to a quota.