Special Economic Zones in the United States: From Colonial Charters, to Foreign-Trade Zones, Toward USSEZs

The Move Toward Free Trade Zones

From World War I1 until about 1980, regional free trade agreements and global trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) could reasonably be seen as complements rather than substitutes-as two aspects of a broad march toward increasingly open international markets. Since then, however, the two have moved in opposite directions. The 1980s were marked by stunning an...

Special Economic Zones and Economic Corridors

Various reports show that special economic zones (SEZ) have become a prime catalyst for regional development in developing countries such as China and the ASEAN countries. The SEZ can be defined as a specific geographical region with economic laws that are more liberal than a country's typical economic laws. Many SEZs have characteristics of bonded zones, export processing zone (EPZ) or free tr...

The Economic Impact of Special Economic Zones: Evidence from Chinese Municipalities

How large are the bene…ts of Special Economic Zones and what are the channels of these bene…ts? To shed some light on these questions, I collect a unique dataset of Chinese municipality economic statistics from 1978 to 2007 and use it to evaluate the impact of a Special Economic Zone experiment aimed at attracting foreign direct investment. Guided by three predictions from a theoretical model, ...

US Foreign Trade Zones as the Secret Lover: Is Uncle Sam Faithful to Tariff Elimination?

For centuries the nations and principalities of the world have engaged in trading schemes to boost exports. Conquest, protection of domestic supply through tariffs and eroding domestic currency are all part of the historic policy harem. The United States has a foreign trade zone program. Who knew? FTZs evoke images of women locked inside a dark sweatshop in a jungle making hoodies for football ...

FOREIGN FIGHTERS Trends , Trajectories & Conflict Zones