Free-trade zone, also called foreign-trade zone, formerly free port, is an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities. In the United States free-trade zones were first authorized in 1934.

Free-trade zones are organized around major seaports, international airports, and national frontiers—areas with many geographic advantages for trade. Examples include Hong Kong, Singapore, Colón (Panama), Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gdańsk (Poland), Los Angeles, and New York City. Advantages of free trade zones are; deferral, reduction, or elimination of certain duties, relief from inverted tariffs, duty exemption on re-exports, duty elimination on waste, scrap, and yield loss, weekly entry savings, improved compliance, inventory tracking, and quality control, indefinite storage, and waived customs duties on zone-to-zone transfers. The United States government operates approximately 293 FTZs throughout the 50 states, known as “Foreign Trade Zones." No duty is paid on damaged goods, goods that are being repaired, or exports between two FTZ. There is no time constraint on the storage of merchandise in the FTZ.

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