Trade & Travel
Trade: The Santa Cruz County Advantage.
The Greater Nogales Santa Cruz County Port Authority has a long-established, excellent working relationship with the community and public and private sector leaders. Here, collaboration and cooperation is weaved into everything we do. These established relationships translate into developing innovative programs like Unified Cargo Processing and coordinated efforts that facilitate trade, promote growth, and improve quality of life.
Unified Cargo Processing
Spearheaded in Nogales, Arizona, the Unified Cargo Processing concept has revolutionized the cargo inspection process. With US and Mexican Customs officers working side by side to jointly inspect shipments, trade exchange has been consolidated and strengthened. By requiring the transportation companies to be C-TPAT certified, officials are able to spend less time on low-risk shipments and dedicate those efforts to the areas that need it most. Customs and Border Protection has reported a time savings of over three hours per inspection while industry reports hundreds of dollars in savings per haul.
ADOT Border Liaison Unit (BLU)
The Arizona Department of Transportation in coordination with their partners, works with the drivers and international transportation companies to improve driver safety and compliance. The BLU through their International Border Inspection Qualification (IBIQ) training program has helped truck drivers better understand and prepare for the safety inspection process at the border, greatly improving driver compliance. Out of Service rates for IBIQ certified drivers is below one percent, keeping Arizona roads safer.
Regional Connectivity
Santa Cruz County is situated near key markets with Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas and Southern California within an 8-hour radius and SaltLake City, Denver, Houston and Dallas within 16 hours by highway. Perfectly positioned at the United States southern entry of the CANAMEX trade corridor-connecting Western Canada with Mexico’s Pacific Coast and Mexico City. Guaymas and Hermosillo, Mexico are just 5 hours away by highway 15. This corridor touches 8 states in Mexico and over 40 million people. Nogales is ideal for businesses who collaborate with Mexico’s West Coast supply chain. For more information please visit the Arizona-Mexico Corridor review the binational freight corridor study.
Foreign Trade Zone
Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) are secure areas under U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) supervision that are generally considered outside CBP territory upon activation. Located in or near CBP ports of entry, they are the United States' version of what are known internationally as free-trade zones
FTZs are advantageous for companies that operate within the zone. The long-established logistics networks in FTZ 60 Nogales efficiently and effectively import, export, manufacture and distribute goods. This kind of expertise is invaluable in matching small and medium size businesses with the resources they need to grow. An important asset supporting the Ambos Nogales maquila industry, FTZ 60 is a vehicle to delay and reduce duties.
For more information contact:
Nogales Santa Cruz County Economic Development Foundation
Grantee of Foreign
825 N. Grand Avenue, Suite 200
Nogales, AZ 85621
email: nogales.edf@gmail.com
Overweight Permits
The Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) issues single use permits allowing commercial trucks to transport within a given area 10,800 pounds above the 80,000-pound limit. To ensure safety and to stay in compliance, commercial trucks must stay within specified routes as long as they are above the 80,000-pound limit.
ADOT shares the overweight permit fees with the City of Nogales and Santa Cruz County to ensure that the local municipalities are able to keep up the maintenance of local infrastructure that may be impacted by the overweight trucks.
For more information on compliance and permitting please visit oversize/overweight permits.
CTPAT
The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is a program that brings together Customs and Border Protection and the private industry to strengthen international supply chains and improve United States border security.
FAST
Free and Secure Trade (FAST) is a clearance process for known low-risk shipments, thus, any truck using FAST lane processing must be a C-TPAT approved carrier, carrying qualifying goods from a C-TPAT approved importer, and the driver in the possession of a valid FAST Commercial Driver Registration ID Card.
The Nogales Mariposa Port of Entry has dedicated processing lanes for C-TPAT FAST shipments that further expedite eligible trucks crossing the border.
You can learn more about C-TPAT and FAST on the CBP website.