2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVEN - Banking (§§ 1 — 3116) › PART III - Other Financial Institutions (§§ 551 — 1390) › Chapter 80A - Trade and Export Company (§§ 1227 — 1227r) › § 1227b - Faculties, powers, and responsibilities

The Company may exercise all powers necessary or inherent to perform its corporative purposes, including, but not limited to:
(a) Act as a link between local and international markets promoting commercial trade of goods and services between Puerto Rico, the United States of America and the rest of the world; promote and market Puerto Rican goods and services in the United States and abroad.
(b) Promote the creation of an operational services network in Puerto Rico for small and medium-size businesses, including the nonprofit organizations sector, and develop the necessary programs for the creation and maintenance of said network, in coordination with academia, the private sector and other municipal, state and federal government entities.
(c) Seek financial and technical assistance, including advice on the various aspects of marketing and local and international commercial practices, which will help small and medium-size entrepreneurs prepare financing proposals that shall be referred to the Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico and other financial institutions.
(d) Have full control and intervention on each and every one of its properties and activities, including determining the nature and the need of all expenses, and the manner they shall be incurred, authorized and paid.
(e) Adopt, alter and use the corporate seal, of which judicial notice shall be given.
(f) Sue and be sued.
(g) Enter into agreements and formalize all necessary and convenient instruments in the exercise of any of its powers.
(h) Render services, offer technical assistance and provide for the use of its real and personal property, whether for compensation or not.
(i) Determine, fix or alter rights, fees and other charges for the use of facilities, equipment or services rendered or provided by the Company, whether for public corporations, government agencies, and private enterprises.
(j) Foster the creation of export companies in warehouse and distribution centers and ports areas and encourage the private sector to promote, initiate, and continue operating all kinds of commercial activities geared toward developing business in general and exporting products and services originated or distributed at the local level.
(k) Build any facility in Puerto Rico, the United States or any other country that would be necessary and convenient for the development of the Puerto Rican trade and to put into effect its powers, goals and purposes pursuant to this chapter.
(l) Exclusively control its properties and activities and establish its own accounting system for the adequate control and registry of all its operations.
(m) Acquire through legal means any real or personal goods, tangibles or intangibles, or any right or interest on them. Hold, keep, use, and operate them, and sell or lease said property to achieve the objectives and purposes of this chapter.
(n) Borrow money and assume obligations, pursuant to the legal provisions applicable thereto for its corporate purposes under such terms and conditions that are determined by the Executive Director from time to time, and approved by the Board of Directors and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico granted herein.
(o) Issue its own bonds, notes, mortgage bonds, and other obligations.
(p) Accept funds, properties, or financial assistance of any nature, from any natural or juridical person, or entity of a private or government nature that operates or functions locally, internationally or in the United States of America, and agree on the use of said funds.
(q) Create or participate as investor in one or more subsidiaries or affiliates which operate for profit or not, jointly with the public and private sector, selectively stimulating them to become fully private. To such end, it may issue grants, stating the safeguards that are imposed by regulations, to private entities with purposes similar to those of the Company for the development of commerce in the local as well as in the international sphere.
(r) Establish alliances with public and private universities of Puerto Rico and with other public and private sectors to attain the objectives of this chapter.
(s) Sell, negotiate, hold, or dispose of the debt securities acquired through its operations.
(t) Acquire all classes of effects in payment, or on account of credit balances or in exchange for investments made in the course of its business, when such acquisition is desirable or necessary to reduce or prevent a loss in connection with the same, and to retain such effects for the time deemed convenient by the Board of Directors by recommendation of the Executive Director, and to exercise property rights on them, and to dispose of the same.
(u) Invest its funds with priority in banker’s acceptances or certificates of deposit, endorsed or issued, as the case may be, by the Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico or in fixed-term deposits in said Bank, in obligations of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or secured in principal as well as interest by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; or in bonds of any agency, instrumentality, commission, authority, municipality or other political subdivisions of the United States of America; or in bonds of international banking institutions recognized by the United States of America, and to which the United States of America has invested capital; or carry out joint investment procedures, or in banks acceptances or certificates of deposit; endorsed or issued, as the case may be, by banks organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States of America or of its states.
(v) Establish offices and divisions in Puerto Rico and abroad for transactions of its business including a Free Trade Zone Division, and to provide services to Puerto Rican entrepreneurs abroad.
(w) Acquire, hold, and dispose of stocks and rights of members, contracts, bonds or other interests in other companies, entities, or corporations, and exercise any and all the powers or legal rights related thereto, and obtain its organization pursuant to the law, and exercise partial or full control on companies, partnerships, or subsidiary corporations, with either profitable or nonprofitable interests, affiliates, or associated, provided that, in the judgment of Board of Directors, by recommendation of the Executive Director, such agreement is necessary, appropriate or convenient to carry out the purposes of the Company or the exercise of its powers, and to sell, lease, donate, or otherwise grant, any property of the Company or delegate, or convey any of its rights, powers, functions or duties, to any of said companies, entities, corporations that are subject to its control, except the right of prosecuting condemnation proceedings.
(x) Adopt regulations to govern its activities and exercise the powers granted by this chapter.
(y) Carry out all those incidental acts necessary and convenient to enforce the powers conferred by this chapter or by any other law of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in effect. The activities of the Company shall not pledge the credit of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico nor of any of its public corporations or political subdivisions.
(z) The Company shall be exempted from the payment of the rights and duties required by the Property Registry, the Notarial Act, or [any] other public body of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
History —Dec. 28, 2003, No. 323, § 5; Sept. 22, 2004, No. 442, § 3; June 17, 2010, No. 61, § 1.