By Luo Yuze, the Research Department of Foreign Economic Relations, the DRC

Research Report No 124, 2013

Abstract:

The United States started building foreign trade zones to boost the country's international trade after the Great Depression in the 1930s. In the early days, the development of foreign trade zones was quite slow due to their single function.

Since the 1980s, however, development picked up quickly as the US government offered more preferential policies and increased the functions of foreign trade zones in order to compete with Japan and the European Union.

After the global financial crisis in 2008, the US has carried out new reforms in foreign trade zones to make them easier in procedure and more flexible in mechanism. The constant innovation in system improvement and openness of US foreign trade zones offer valuable lessons for China.