A new, 75-acre trade park unveiled last week in South Carolina's Upstate marks a new partnership between US and Chinese business investment and further expansion of the state's foreign-trade zones.

The Global Trade Center includes a 200,000-square-foot building and exhibition hall in Mauldin, SC, about 200 miles from the Port of Charleston.

More than 140 Chinese companies will display their products to US purchasers in the initial year of operation. Several US companies are currently working with the center to do business with China. Pacific Gateway is in talks with officials in Brazil and Ukraine to offer similar trade services in the future.

The Global Trade Center will serve as a market-entry incubator to assist both foreign companies entering the US market and US companies entering international markets.

Mr. Zhijiang Feng, deputy director of The Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone Government in Tianjin, China assisted Greenville investment firm Pacific Gateway Capital Group in the opening.

"This trade park is an economic development tool to assist US companies to export to China and is a platform to bring foreign companies here to invest," said Peter Kwan, president of Pacific Gateway Capital Group. "The center will help both overcome the initial stage of entering a new market."

The center is a general purpose Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ). South Carolina's FTZ program began major expansions last year, bringing more than 280 acres into the Upstate's FTZ #38.

Other recent additions to FTZ #38 include:

  • Black and Decker ' a Subzone with a 500,000-square-foot distribution center in Fort Mill
  • Faurecia Interior Systems (BMW supplier) ' a Subzone with a 326,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Fountain Inn
  • Spitznagel USA (BMW supplier) ' a General Purpose Zone site with a 44,000-square-foot warehouse in Duncan
  • Michelin North America ' a General Purpose Zone site with a 1-million-square-foot distribution center in Laurens
  • Lakeside Business Park ' a 20-acre General Purpose Zone site off I-85 in Greer
  • Major expansions for South Carolina's FTZs are planned for 2006 with the addition of at least eight new sites throughout the Upstate and Lowcountry.

While South Carolina is 40th in the nation in physical size, it ranks second ' behind only Texas ' in dollar value of goods exported from Foreign Trade Zones, which totaled $1.4 billion in federal fiscal year 2004.

Merchandise received in FTZ #38 totaled $8 billion in FY04, a 35% increase from the $5.2 billion reported the previous year. Corporations residing in FTZ #38 represent $4 billion in capital investment.