Altoona Warehouse offers Iowa On imports temporary postponement of tariff volatility

The nearest seaport is perhaps 1000 miles away in Galveston, Texas, but Jamie Cord likes to use a nautical reference in explaining a unique feature of one of his warehouses in Altoona.

“It is as if the load is still on the ship and the coast has not yet officially reached, so rates are not owed until the goods leave (the warehouse),” said Cord, President and CEO of JT Logistics, who offers so -called bound storage confirmation that enable importers to keep items to go to the market.

It is believed that it is the first of its kind in the DES MOINE Metro. But as President Donald Trump employs steep rates to tackle trade issues, this may not be the last.

Bonded Warehouses, under the supervision of the American port authority, are still relatively rare in the United States, but are gaining popularity. Companies that import goods in the United States, especially from China, rush to convert warehouses into bound facilities.

The US has around 1,700 of the warehouses, where imported goods can be held without immediate payment of customs duties such as rates, which are currently set at 30% for articles from China. The costs are only paid when the goods leave the bound warehouse, allowing companies to manage funds more effectively in a time of extreme trade policy volatility.

JT Logistics, with more than 2 million square foot warehouse space in seven buildings in the exchange of Interstate 35 and US 65, has 200,000 square feet -bound storage space. The warehouse is called bound because the company only places a bond with the government to ensure that it adheres to the trade requirements.

In turn it protects the warehouse with gates and security cameras. To prevent an unauthorized removal of the inventory, only employees who have undergone background controls are allowed.

“It's 100 percent safe,” said Cord. “I am an owner of the building and I can't get in there.”

The port authority would not confirm how many bound warehouses there are in Iowa, but Jason Ickert, Chief Operating Officer for JT Logistics, said that the company has the only such facility in the Des Moines area.

Cord said his company started offering bound storage space a few years ago before the Trump rates. The recent trade measures have stimulated interest.

Another option for managing rates are foreign trade zones, where some production can take place with imported goods.

“And the reason why you could do that would be to actually do something that is called an upside -down rate, in which you may bring three components from another country, but by putting together those three components, the rate percentage at that new end product is actually less than the individual rate levy on the three components themselves,” said Peter Ralston, director of the Forforforforfor, said. Furaworforfor, Forfbor, Forfbor, Forfbor, Forfbor, Forfbor, Forfbor, Forforfbor, Forfbor, Forforforfbor.

Free trade zones are sometimes also used in the production of goods that use foreign components and are subsequently exported, thereby constructing the jobs and other benefits related to production, but the avoidance of rates and other cost barriers.

Iowa has foreign trade zones in the Moines, the Quad Cities, Northwest Iowa and Cedar Rapids, and each can be geographically expanded to form sub -zones around specific facilities. The trade zone of des Moines, managed by the Greater des Moines Partnership, includes a company in Council Bluffs and Winnebago Industries in Forest City, said Ryan Carroll, director of regional business development for the partnership.

“We can do something to allow ourselves to expand the FTZ around the physical property of a company in different provinces that are set out for that. And then we have a kind of the area of ​​the general goal, a warehouse in Clive that has a little FTZ room,” Carroll said.

Being eligible for the names includes some expenses, such as the costs of setting up the facility to meet the federal requirements, Carroll and Ralston said.

“There are of course some reimbursements to set up a foreign sub -zone in the trade zone,” said Carroll. “There are application costs, there are legal fees, things like that associated with, on top of the other items must also look.”

A cost, he said, is that setting up a system to keep track of all imported goods that come into a facility to meet the reporting requirements.

More: Ingersoll Avenue Chocolate Palace feels weight of rates on its imported Easter -treats

“Sometimes those things can be a kind of front-end barriers to do this, because there are a little time and costs involved, but ultimately, in the long term, strategic, if you import things and unless we have free trade agreements with everyone, it is very logical to watch,” he said.

Ralston said that bound warehouse space can cost the price of a normal warehouse twice and the recent demand as a result of rates has pushed those prices at a certain place at a certain place to have it for a typical warehouse.

But he said that both bound warehouses and FTZs offer a number of clear benefits to companies that trust import.

More: Outdorp Outdoor Outfitter Hegen at rates by adding goods used to inventory

“For me, the enormous advantage of being in a bound warehouse or a foreign trade zone that creates a little more cash flow and perhaps a little more costs certainty,” he said. “It gives companies the opportunity to make an inventory without having to pay the rate for what is still in the warehouse. That offers a little more costs certainty. I do not say cost benefits, but rather costs certainty, and it just helps to be a little more secure of your money position.”

Having the product in hand, but not having to pay the rate immediately, also offers companies the opportunity to manage market volatility, just like with Trump's on-again rate, he said. He pointed to steel rates, which recently fell for a while before he went up again.

“So if you had steel in a bound warehouse or FTZ, you could have (waited) and paid a lower rate rate,” said Ralston.

More: Rates cost Iowa companies $ 90 million in April, says a new report, an increase of 304% from 2024

For companies that manage supply chains, the uncertainty on the market can be more disturbing than the actual rates, Ralston said.

“When I talk to Iowa companies, it is not necessarily the rates that disturb them, it is the uncertainty behind decisions about Supply Chain,” he said. “Supply chains crave security and what we have now is a period of uncertainty in a strange way.”

Ralston said that if the rate was set without being changed often, companies would be in a better position to manage their effects.

“If it was just announced that this is what the tariff percentage will be and this is what it is to move forward and we are not going to change it, the production chains can be the best way to deal with it,” he said. “But at the moment there is so much uncertainty and so much volatility that Supply Chains are very difficult to work. It is the uncertainty behind so many different decisions that are currently on a lot of damage to supply chains.”

The economy of Iowa can be influenced in particular by the rate policy, he said.

More: Chicago Fed Chief: Iowa, with its production and AG jobs, strongly affected by rates

“Iowa is a production state, not a consumption state, so we usually start producing more than we consume,” he said, adding that the state is “touched to both parties” of the tariff policy by having to pay rates for raw materials and parts that are required for production, but also injured in the export of agricultural products.

A recent report from TaxFlation.org noted that from April 2024 to April 2025, rates paid by Iowa Importers rises by 304%, the 11^one Biggest increase in all states.

Reuters has contributed to this article.

Kevin Baskins treats jobs and the economy for the DES MOINES register. Reach it at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on the Moines Register: JT Logistics' Bonded Warehouse in Altoona keeps rates remotely