GOSHEN – Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus wants to breathe new life into the county’s Foreign Trade Zone.
The federally approved entity is designed to offer companies the ability to import component products, store them in the zone and not pay taxes on them until they are assembled and shipped out.
Several business leaders from Orange, Ulster and Putnam counties met Wednesday at the Konica Minolta facility in Goshen, one of the six companies presently in the FTZ, to discuss generating more interest in it. Neuhaus said momentum has already begun.
“Orange County has a unique foreign trade zone which is not only able to help Orange County and companies that want to come here, but also other neighboring counties, so it has a regional impact,” he said. “We had two applications for international businesses that want to expand in our region.”
Orange County’s FTZ was originally established and operating solely at Stewart Airport, but as interest grew, it was expanded to businesses in other counties including the IBM complex in East Fishkill and the former Dress Barn facility in Airmont.
