Katherine Frisk – In the 1990s a very old childhood friend came to visit. He was expounding on the wonders of free trade zones. A plan that was being engineered at the time for Mozambique which had been decimated by a civil war. A free trade zone in Maputo, apparently, was part of a program to rebuild and restructure the country and bring it back to life. Or, to put it another way, it had been successfully destroyed and now it was time for the engineers of that destruction to rebuild it in their own image. For more information on this program and how it has worked over the last 70 years see: A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

I listened intently about how these free trade zones would function and how they would be tax exempt.

I also listened to the wondrous virtues of this system, that would create jobs for the people of Mozambique and help to uplift the country.

The workers would not be tax exempt.

This sounded like a free ride for some and a rip off for others. The companies and corporations involved and the shipping industry, would get all the benefits of operating in that country but would not be giving anything back in return for the privilege of functioning in that country. The majority of the free trade zones would all be situated in third world countries where they had cheap labour and people were desperate for work. My reply was:

“So let me get this straight. First world companies trading in third world countries in free trade zones do not pay tax. Third world companies trading in first world countries where there are no free trade zones have to pay tax? When they make New York, South Hampton, Sydney and every other first world port a free trade zone, then we can talk.” Continue reading →