---
kind: "section"
citation: "19 U.S.C. § 81a"
title: "19"
title_heading: "Customs Duties"
number: "81a"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/19/81a"
units:
  - "Chapter 1A — Foreign Trade Zones"
---

# §81a. Definitions


When used in this chapter—

- (a) The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Commerce;
- (b) The term “Board” means the Board which is established to carry out the provisions of this chapter. The Board shall consist of the [Secretary](#a) of Commerce, who shall be chairman and executive officer of the Board, and the [Secretary](#a) of the Treasury;
- (c) The term “State” includes any State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico;
- (d) The term “corporation” means a [public corporation](#e) and a [private corporation](#f), as defined in this chapter;
- (e) The term “public corporation” means a [State](#c), political subdivision thereof, a municipality, a public agency of a [State](#c), political subdivision thereof, or municipality, or a corporate municipal instrumentality of one or more [States](#c);
- (f) The term “private corporation” means any [corporation](#d) (other than a [public corporation](#e)) which is organized for the purpose of establishing, operating, and maintaining a foreign-trade [zone](#i) and which is chartered under special Act enacted after June 18, 1934, of the [State](#c) or [States](#c) within which it is to operate such [zone](#i);
- (g) The term “applicant” means a [corporation](#d) applying for the right to establish, operate, and maintain a foreign-trade [zone](#i);
- (h) The term “grantee” means a [corporation](#d) to which the privilege of establishing, operating, and maintaining a foreign-trade [zone](#i) has been granted;
- (i) The term “zone” means a “foreign-trade zone” as provided in this chapter.

## Source credit

(June 18, 1934, ch. 590, § 1, 48 Stat. 998; Pub. L. 104–201, div. A, title IX, § 910, Sept. 23, 1996, 110 Stat. 2621.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1996—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 104–201, § 910(1), substituted “and the Secretary of the Treasury” for “the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of War”.

Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 104–201, § 910(2), struck out “Alaska, Hawaii,” after “Columbia,”.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

This chapter is popularly known as the “Foreign Trade Zones Act”.

### Floor Stocks Tax Treatment of Articles in Foreign Trade Zones

Notwithstanding this chapter, articles located in a foreign trade zone on the effective date of increases in tax under specific amendments by Pub. L. 101–508 subject to floor stocks taxes under certain circumstances, see section 11218 of Pub. L. 101–508, set out as a note under section 5001 of Title 26, Internal Revenue Code.