Colon Free Zone returning to life first quarter up 26%

Activity in the Colon Free Zone (ZLC) in the first four months of the year showed an increase of 26 .2% compared to the same period last year with a balance of over $5 billion.

The Minister of Commerce and Industries, Ramón Martínez, has indicated that part of the modifications that will be made to Law 8 seeks to improve the international fiscal transparency of the ZLC, prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing of weapons of mass destruction.

Despite this double-digit increase, the commercial movement of the second largest free zone in the world is 7.8% below the data reported between January and April 2019, prior to the pandemic

The ZLC ended 2020 with a total balance of $14.77 billion, about $3.792 billion less compared to the movement reported in 2019.

To boost commercial transactions and attract new companies to the ZLC, the Government sent a bill to the National Assembly that contemplates that multinationals that settle in the country under the manufacturing services regime (EMMA) can operate within the free zone located in the province of Colón.

Additionally, companies that operate in the free zone may apply the labor regime used in Panama Pacifico, which allows, among other points, a limit of 15% and not 10%, on the number of foreign workers.

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