• Approaches
    • Blog
    • Traders and Priests
    • Something like a theory
  • Corridors
  • Devices
    • Definitions
    • Glossary
    • The FTZ-Device
  • Narratives
    • Mud Lake
    • Wetlands to Tar Sands
  • Walks
    • Walk of the Divides
    • Resiliency and Hope in South Chicago
    • Port of Chicago / Lake Calumet
    • Energy Walk
    • Remember Kalamazoo – BP Protest in Whiting
    • Choking Points in the Supply Chain
    • Ottawa Sands
  • Maps
    • Map Archive
    • Foreign Trade Zones
    • Southwest Corridor (all)
  • Contributions
    • Sarah Lewison
    • Steve Rowell
    • Laurie Palmer
    • Sarah Ross
  • Events
    • Calendar of excursions & workshops
    • Project Room at ThreeWalls
    • First ideas
    • Sketches
  • Bios & Links
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Illinois International corrected
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"US Customs agents police the 'frontier.'" Washington Post, January 28, 1940.
"US Customs agents police the 'frontier.'" Washington Post, January 28, 1940.
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Warning No Trespassing

this is where we check out
Foreign Trade Zones


Illinois International

What does free trade look like? In the US, it’s foreign. Congress passed the Foreign-Trade Zones Act at the height of the Depression, to coax liquid capital back across regulatory borders. FTZs start at ports, then work their way inland. They’re used for tariff-free trade, but also for manufacturing with foreign components. First they were surrounded by barbed wire, now by electronic fences. Through a labyrinth of legal channels, offshore comes onshore.