ABSTRACT
Interest in zones – export processing zones (EPZs) and special economic zones (SEZs) – has grown since China implemented its SEZs in 1978. This interest was rekindled when India announced its 2005 SEZ policy and when the government of China began to pursue Chinese zones in Africa. Zones are usually enclosed areas in which a state develops a specific legal code, one that is generally more lenient toward foreign corporations than in the rest of the state. Import and export tariffs on goods and other taxes are reduced or removed, leading some to associate zones with tax havens that have taken on a spatial, physical quality rather than a purely legal one (Palan 2003).
