McAllen Foreign Trade Zone #12 strengthens its role as a strategic partner for Mexican industry

The McAllen Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) #12 continues to position itself as a key instrument for industrial growth and competitiveness along the U.S.–Mexico border, offering logistics, operational, and fiscal solutions that support the expansion of Mexican and international companies.

As the first inland foreign trade zone in the United States, the FTZ provides a wide range of services, from operational space with specialized inventory-handling personnel to office leasing, land, and infrastructure for companies looking to establish or expand operations without assuming high initial costs.

One of the program’s most significant advantages is the reduction, deferral, or elimination of duties and tariffs, which directly improves companies’ cash flow.

“The foreign trade zone program is designed exactly for that — to defer or eliminate duties. It is a very important tool for companies’ cash flow,” explained Sandra Barboza, Vice President of the Foreign Trade Zone.

Barboza recently participated in a meeting between the COSTEP, Council for the Economic Progress of South Texas, and the Automotive Cluster of Aguascalientes (GIRAA), where she emphasized the importance of outreach efforts to inform companies that are not yet familiar with the benefits of the FTZ program.

“It is very important for us to participate and share our information with companies. The foreign trade zone is fundamental for the entire region, and we work with companies from all over the world, especially from Mexico,” she noted.

She also highlighted that the FTZ maintains an open-door policy for companies of all sizes, supporting them from early growth stages through full operational consolidation in the United States.

Currently, the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone works with a broad range of industries, including automotive and manufacturing, collaborating closely with maquiladoras and companies across multiple sectors. This cross-border cooperation strengthens binational industrial development and reinforces the region’s role as a strategic manufacturing and logistics platform.