Free trade zones (FTZs) are vulnerable to illicit trade; despite many governments and zone operators taking steps to mitigate these vulnerabilities, they remain especially acute in trading operations of specific goods. One of these is gold. High-risk gold originating in Latin America and the...

This study examines the potential for the misuse of Free Trade Zones (FTZs) for trade in counterfeit and pirated goods. It presents the evolution of the FTZs and the international legal framework in which they operate, the reasons for establishing such zones and the benefits they offer...

Competition for foreign direct investment has been neglected as a subject of research. Yet many claim that such competition is having deleterious effects, such as lowering governments’ standards of protection of the environment and workers’ rights.This book looks at the evidence and assesses...

This paper assesses good practices and lessons learned in investment promotion in European Union (EU) Member States. It focuses on two specific areas of investment promotion: state aid for regional development under EU law and special economic zone frameworks. It provides an overview of the...

This report is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first attempt to systematically collect in one place the different experiences of these six economies, the specific details of the special economic zones in each of them and how they are being used, in an attempt to answer two basic questions: i)...