Foreign-Trade Zone No. 68 was granted into existence in 1981 by order of the FTZ Board, a Federal Authority created by the Foreign-Trade Zones Act of 1934. The original Grantee was El Paso International Airport who acted to establish, maintain and operate a 60-acre site within Butterfield Trail Industrial Park.

In late 1982, the Grant was transferred from the Airport to the City of El Paso with the Airport acting as Operator. In 1986, FTZ No. 68 went through its first expansion application to include all 588 acres of Butterfield Trail Industrial Park. This expansion was necessary to meet the needs of industrial target markets (i.e., Maquiladoras) and the “open zone” concept, meaning that a tenant has the flexibility of activating zone status in all or part of its property to realize the benefits of FTZ legislation. Since then, the FTZ has gone through five expansions and four boundary modifications to accommodate the demand for zone services.

Today, FTZ No. 68 is the fifth largest general-purpose zone in the nation based on dollar volume, reaching a figure of $2 billion in FY 1999 and the largest FTZ on the U.S./Mexico Border. The zone consists of 21 sites containing 3,443 acres spread out through the Eastside, central, northeast and lower valley areas of the city and outside the city limits but within El Paso County. On average over 70 firms use the FTZ, handling more than 200 different items from more than 80 countries. FTZ No. 68 is a division of El Paso International Airport. The FTZ office is located at the International Trade Processing Center, the regions only one-stop shop for international trade with on-site US Customs personnel to assist FTZ Users and the import/export community.

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