On the heels of Brexit, the government hopes it has found a way to boost trade
IT STARTED IN 2016 with a report by Rishi Sunak, then a backbench MP, extolling the virtues of “The Free Ports Opportunity”. Five years later, freeports remain a pet project of Mr Sunak, now Britain’s finance minister, and a much-vaunted part of the country’s economic strategyand Brexit. On November 19th tax cuts became available in the first batch of the eight zones currently set to open—Teesside, in north-east England , Humber in Yorkshire and Thames in the south-east.
Proponents argue that the tax relief encourages companies to operate in deprived areas. Some, such as the Americas’ largest free zone, in Panama, have indeed attracted new jobs and investments. Mr Sunak will hope that the same holds true in, where a thriving port could help fill the void left by the decline in industrial jobs.
Freeports carry other risks too: the EU worries that zones in Switzerland and Luxembourg may facilitate money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing. The popularity of these havens has soared amid an uptick in tax-evasion crackdowns. But the risk of such jiggery-pokery should be lower in Britain, where freeports will be geared towards manufacturing and the continuous import and export of goods, rather than long-term storage for art and high-value investments.
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