Foreign Trade Zones Help SC Businesses

By Mike Switzer

Published August 27, 2015 at 5:40 AM EDT

South Carolina businesses pay fees when importing goods from outside the U.S. However, those fees can be dramatically reduced, sometimes by as much as 90%, or even eliminated altogether when those goods come through our Foreign Trade Zones.

Mike Switzer interviews Suzan Carroll-Ramsey, the foreign trade specialist for our state's Foreign Trade Zones at the South Carolina Ports Authority in Charleston.

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South Carolina Business Review business news

Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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