Our business is a high-end large scale clothing company whose clientele is mostly based in France and Italy.
We wanted to establish in the Free Economic Zone and export our products but also be able to sell in the Curaçao local market. Our goal is to use Curaçao as a hub to send our products to Europe.
Given that Curaçao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, we wanted to find out if there are also certain incentives.
We filled out an application form from Curinde`s website, accompanied by 2 bank references and 2 commercial references. We followed the steps on how to obtain an E-zone license and once the license was granted, we then signed a rental agreement.
A Curinde representative explained to us that according to the E-zone law, selling to the local market from within a Free Economic Zone is permitted with a few conditions:
- 75% or more of our company revenues must be generated from export.
- A maximum of 25% of our annual revenues may be generated from local market sales but a separate permit to sell from the Free Economic Zone to a local company, must be obtained.
- Normal import duties will be applied to the 25% local sales.
- We can make use of the Overseas Countries & Territories (OCT) Decision. If a product or merchandise is modified (receive added value) in the Free Economic Zone and complies with the OCT Decision’s rule of Origin, then our products may enter the EU under preferential conditions. Transformations and modifications (added value requirement) vary from product to product and/or ingredients.
After obtaining the necessary permit, we are now established as a Free Economic Zone company and are able to export to North & South America and Europe while selling to the local market of Curaçao.