Free-trade zone
A free-trade zone is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to customs duty. Free trade zones are generally organized around major seaports, international airports, and national frontiers—areas with many geographic advantages for trade.
Definition
The World Bank defines free trade zones as "small, fenced-in, duty-free areas, offering warehousing, storage, and distribution facilities for trade, transshipment, and re-export operations". Free-trade zones can also be defined as labor-intensive manufacturing centers that involve the import of raw materials or components and the export of factory products, but this is a dated definition as more and more free-trade zones focus on service industries such as software, back-office operations, research, and financial services.Synonyms
Free-trade zones are referred to as "foreign-trade zones" in the United States, where FTZs provide customs-related advantages as well as exemptions from state and local inventory taxes. In other countries, they have been called "duty-free export processing zones," "export-free zones," "export processing zones," "free export zones," "free zones," "industrial free zones," "investment promotion zones," "maquiladoras," and "special economic zones". Some were previously called "free ports". Free zones range from specific-purpose manufacturing facilities to areas where legal systems and economic regulation vary from the normal provisions of the country concerned.Free zones may reduce or eliminate taxes, customs duties, and regulatory requirements for registration of business. Zones around the world often provide special exemptions from normal immigration procedures and foreign investment restrictions as well as other features. Free zones are intended to foster economic activity and employment that could occur elsewhere.
Export-processing zone
An export-processing zone is a specific type of FTZ usually set up in developing countries by their governments to promote industrial and commercial exports. According to the World Bank, "an export processing zone is an industrial estate, usually a fenced-in area of 10 to 300 hectares, that specializes in manufacturing for export. It offers firms free trade conditions and a liberal regulatory environment. Its objectives are to attract foreign investors, collaborators, and buyers who can facilitate entry into the world market for some of the economy's industrial goods, thus generating employment and foreign exchange". Most FTZs are located in developing countries; Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, El Salvador, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Madagascar all have EPZ programs. In 1997, 93 countries had set up export processing zones, employing 22.5 million people, and five years later, in 2003, EPZs in 116 countries employed 43 million people.Brazil
In Brazil, 25 Export-Processing Zones have been authorized in 17 states, and 19 of them have been implemented. The Brazilian government launched the first Export processing zones in 1988, aiming to fight the unbalances in the country. The first EPZ area was located near the Port of Pecém in Ceará. Companies in these areas are benefitting from tax exemptions and incentives at the ICMS Tax. Some Brazilian states offer other regional incentives. Companies can also take advantage of a foreign exchange treatment supported by the law that created the EPZs and proximity of customs authorities who have offices inside the EPZ.China
has specific rules differentiating an EPZ from a FTZ. For example, 70% of goods in EPZs must be exported, but there is no such quota for FTZs.Free economic zone
Free economic zones, free economic territories or free zones are a class of special economic zone designated by the trade and commerce administrations of various countries. The term is used to designate areas in which companies are taxed very lightly or not at all to encourage economic activity. The taxation rules and duties are determined by each country. The World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures has content on the conditions and benefits of free zones.Some special economic zones are called free ports or free trade ports. Sometimes they have historically been endowed with favorable customs regulations, such as the free port of Trieste, or the newer free trade port on Hainan Island.
Definition
The definition should be understood in meaning uses the term “free zones” which the revised convention describes as “a part of the territory of a Contracting Party where any goods introduced are generally regarded, insofar as import duties and taxes are concerned, as being outside the customs territory”.According to the World Bank, the main types of special economic zones are:
- Free-trade zones
- Export processing zones
- Free economic zones
- Industrial parks/estates
- Free ports
- Bonded logistics parks
- Urban enterprise zones
History
All "free ports" in the world were permitted by the respective states, save the Free Port of Trieste that with the signing of the 16th Resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations and the signing of the Treaty of Peace with Italy was put territorially under the sovereignty of the United Nations itself. As cited on Annex VIII, Article 3, paragraph 2: "The establishment of special zones in the Free Port under the exclusive jurisdiction of any State is incompatible with the status of the Free Territory and of the Free Port". For example, it was not possible to apply the "Italian Law on Ports" in the extraterritorial free zones of the UN Free Port of Trieste with the effect that all actual territorial concessions were null and void.
In 1954, the Free Territory of Trieste was dissolved and given to its neighbours, Italy and Yugoslavia.
Background
The world's first-documented free-trade zone was established on the Greek Island of Delos in 166 BCE. It lasted until about 69 BCE when the island was overrun by pirates. The Romans had many civitas libera, or free cities, some of which could coin money, establish their own laws, and not pay an annual tribute to the Roman Emperor. These continued through at least the first millennium CE. In the 12th century, the Hanseatic League began operating in Northern Europe and established trading colonies throughout Europe. These Free Trade Zones included Hamburg and the Steelyard in London. The Steelyard, like other Hansa stations, was a separate walled community with its own warehouses, weighing house, chapel, counting houses, and residential quarters. In 1988, remains of the former Hanseatic trading house, once the largest medieval trading complex in Britain, were uncovered by archaeologists during maintenance work on Cannon Street Station. Shannon, Ireland, established in 1959, has claimed to be the first "modern" free trade zone. The Shannon Zone was started to help the city airport adjust to a radical change in aircraft technology that permitted longer range aircraft to skip previously required refueling stops in Shannon. It was an attempt by the Irish government to maintain employment around the airport so that the airport would continue to generate revenue for the Irish economy. It was hugely successful and is still in operation today. Other free zones to note are the Kandla Free Zone in India, which started in about 1960, and the Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone in Taiwan, which started in 1967. The number of worldwide free-trade zones proliferated in the late 20th century.Corporations setting up in a zone may be given a number of regulatory and fiscal incentives, such as the right to establish a business, the right to import parts and equipment without duty, the right to keep and use foreign exchange earnings, and sometimes income or property tax breaks. There may also be other incentives relating the methods of customs control and filing requirements. The rationale is that the zones will attract investment, create employment, and thus reduce poverty and unemployment, stimulating the area's economy. These zones are often used by multinational corporations to set up factories to produce goods.
Free-trade zones should be distinguished from free trade areas. A free trade zone is normally established in a single country, although there are a few exceptions where a free zone may cross a national border, such as the Syrian/Jordanian Free Trade Zone. Free trade areas are set up between countries; for example, the Latin America Free Trade Association was created in the 1960 Treaty of Montevideo by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay; and the North American Free Trade Agreement was established between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. In free trade areas, tariffs are only lowered between member countries. They should also be distinguished from customs unions, like the former European Economic Community, where several countries agree to unify customs regulations and eliminate customs between the union members.
Free-trade zones have more recently been also called special economic zones in some countries. Special economic zones have been established in many countries as testing grounds for the implementation of liberal market economy principles. SEZs are viewed as instruments to enhance the acceptability and the credibility of the transformation policies and to attract domestic and foreign investment. The change in terminology has been driven by the formation of the World Trade Organization, which prohibits members from offering certain types of fiscal incentives to promote the exports of goods, thus why the term Export Processing Zone is no longer used with newer zones. For example, India converted all of its EPZs to SEZs in 2000.
In 1999, there were 43 million people working in about 3,000 FTZs spanning 116 countries and producing clothes, shoes, sneakers, electronics, and toys. The basic objectives of economic zones are to enhance foreign exchange earnings, develop export-oriented industries, and generate employment opportunities.