Two of Northeast Ohio’s foreign trade zones — where businesses can save on customs duties — are joining forces to create a “super zone” to better attract companies and create jobs.The nonprofit Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium (NEOTEC), which oversees the 5,000-acre plus foreign trade zone spread across Summit and seven other Northeast Ohio counties, is now also administering the 5,600-acre zone in Cuyahoga, Lorain and Ashtabula counties.NEOTEC President Ron DeBarr said a big benefit of the partnership is that NEOTEC now is marketing both zones essentially as one big zone, offering businesses 37 separate areas — such as industrial parks —in which they can qualify for savings.This is making these zones more useful, more effective,” DeBarr said.“When we put both programs together, it’s one of the largest in the country,” a combined 11,000 acres.NEOTEC promotes the foreign trade zone program — created by the U.S. Congress in 1934 — as a way for companies to compete globally while keeping jobs in the United States.For example, DeBarr said, companies in a trade zone can accept foreign components tariff-free, assemble them into finished products, then export them to other countries.The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority had been administering the 5,600-acre zone in Cuyahoga, Lorain and Ashtabula. It’s called Foreign Trade Zone 40, and is made up of 10 areas — called sites.NEOTEC, with offices on the campus of Kent State University, has long administered Foreign Trade Zone 181, the zone in Summit and seven other counties that has 27 sites. This zone has grown significantly under NEOTEC’s management during the past 15 years and is now one of the largest of 250 zones in the United States in total volume of merchandise received and shipped.NEOTEC was founded in 1996 by county officials in Portage, Stark, Summit and a few other counties.The nonprofit, which has other programs besides the trade zone, has an annual budget of about $500,000. Counties pay fees to be members of the organization. Companies pay fees to locate in a zone.Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.