Boris Johnson's Freeport Idea Is Full of Holes
British freeports wouldn’t be the same as America’s Foreign-Trade Zones. It’s far from clear that the costs would be worth it for business and the economy.
Free at last.
Photographer: LINDSEY PARNABY/AFPRishi Sunak hasn’t yet released his first budget as Britain’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer, but already his ideas are shaping the post-Brexit economic landscape and will influence the trade negotiations with Brussels that start next week.
Sunak’s proposal that Britain set up a network of freeports was seized upon by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a way of delivering infrastructure and opportunity to poorer regions after Britain completes its exit from the European Union. The plan has its roots in a 2016 report Sunak authored for the the Center for Policy Studies, a conservative think tank, arguing that the creation of these special economic zones after Brexit will create up to 86,000 new jobs and boost trade and investment in struggling areas. It’s a neat idea, but one with serious limitations and which is nothing like the Brexit dividend that the government’s suggesting.