The Greater Kansas City Foreign Trade Zone, Inc. (GKCFTZ) is a regional grantee of the national FTZ program. GKCFTZ has been the grantee since 1974 and was the first non-profit organization to be designated a grantee. GKCFTZ sponsors both Foreign-Trade Zone No. 15 in Kansas City, Missouri and Zone No. 17 in Kansas City, Kansas. Zone 15 serves 23 contiguous counties in western Missouri. Zone 17 serves 9 counties in easter Kansas. A Foreign-Trade Zone is an area within the United States that is outside of Customs territory for purposes of collection of US Customs duties and fees. Foreign goods and merchandise admitted duty-unpaid to a Foreign Trade Zone where they can be stored, processed, repackaged, transformed destroyed or otherwise handled by company employees providing value-added work before they leave the FTZ (when a formal entry is filed) or exported. FTZ users enjoy many cost-saving benefits in cost of goods stored, produced/assembled in FTZ's as well as cost reductions in transportation, distribution and other components of their supply chains. Among the many benefits FTZ users enjoy are the following:1. U.S. Customs Duty Deferral/Elimination/Reduction2. Weekly Entry & Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) Savings3. Inverted TariffThere are many other benefits including direct delivery of imports to FTZ (where users can break Customs seals and admit goods into their inventory systems), Zone-to-Zone transfers, and others that improve supply chain velocity, reduce inventory costs and improve accountability. FTZs are recognized as a "best industry practice" by USCBP because they significantly improve supply chain security.