Express lane: reorganized foreign trade zones and new services at a state port help coastal companies reach global markets faster.

• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: COASTAL CAROLINA

The rural northern North Carolina coast feels distant, buffered from the rest of the state by acres of fields. Many of its residents identify more with southeast Virginia, where as many as 16,000 of them work, according to North Carolina's Northeast Commission, a 16-county economic-development partnership. That connection is about to grow stronger. The federal government and both states recently approved legislation that expands Foreign Trade Zone 20--which surrounds Port of Virginia in Hampton Roads, Va.--to include Currituck County. It's one of only two--there are more than 250 FTZs in the country--that cross state lines, says Peter Bishop, executive director of Currituck County Economic Development Commission. A key player in the expansion effort, he says it will make the world more accessible to companies in northeast North Carolina.

Companies that operate overseas get many benefits from being based in an FTZ. They reduce the cost of imported raw materials and components. The companies don't pay customs duties when they export through an FTZ port. Manufacturers receive the greatest benefit from FTZ status when the duty on raw materials is higher than the duty on finished products.

Those who helmed the effort to put Currituck in FTZ 20 sailed calm seas. The county was already in the Virginia Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the Port of Virginia is less than 60 miles away, both requirements for joining. Currituck will be included by year-end.

Bishop says it makes sense for companies in northeast North Carolina to move goods through Port of Virginia. Port of Wilmington is about 250 miles away, and Port of Morehead City isn't much closer. Currituck has a 100-acre industrial park that is ideal for industries seeking to take advantage of FTZ status. All Currituck and surrounding counties still need that would help attract manufacturers, he says, is a better highway system, specifically connections to U.S. 17 and N.C. 64. "Combine all this with the Port [of Virginia], and you're cooking with gas."

While it's easier for these companies to head to Virginia, North Carolina's ports are improving for companies further south. The state is applying for an FTZ...