Criminal Risks in Free Trade Zones
This project examines criminal risks in free-trade zones, also known as freeports, and highlights best practice in tackling those risks.
Free-trade zones are created to attract trade and investment, but they are also vulnerable to crime. With the adoption of the OECD’s Code of Conduct for Clean Free-Trade Zones, it is more important than ever to understand and address the risks of illicit trade and financial crime. Our project explored international experience in doing so. It also provided an online risk assessment tool that businesses can use to understand their own exposure to the risk of facilitating crime as a result of operating in free-trade zones.
Aims and objectives
The project identified factors that render free-trade zones vulnerable to illicit trade and financial crime and proposes measures to detect and prevent their criminal exploitation. To explore common challenges and responses that transcend countries’ individual circumstances, it examined four country case studies: Morocco, Panama, Singapore and the UAE.
Based on over 70 interviews, two research workshops and an analysis of publicly available literature, the project generated a published report on criminal risks of free-trade zones, an online risk assessment tool and multiple presentations, including the provision of parliamentary testimony on the introduction of freeports in the UK and broader responses to relevant governmental consultations.
Project sponsor
PMI Impact
This project is funded by PMI Impact, a global funding initiative by Philip Morris International.
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Project outputs
Access the key papers and the online tool produced as part of this project.
This Free Trade Zone Risk Assessment tool enables businesses to assess their exposure to the risk of facilitating illicit trade or financial crime in any FTZ
Inquiries and testimony
Read the responses to inquiries and testimony in the House of Commons' International Trade Committee.
Oral evidence was given to the International Trade Committee on 9 September 2020.
Podcasts
Access podcast episodes related to this project.
Anton Moiseienko, Research Fellow at RUSI's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, and Jon Draper, New Ventures Product Lead at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence talk to host Ben Tudor about a second front in the battle against money laundering: global trade on The Intelligence Download podcast.
Anton Moiseienko, Research Fellow at RUSI's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, and Jon Draper, New Ventures Product Lead at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence talk to host Ben Tudor about a second front in the battle against money laundering: global trade on The Intelligence Download podcast.
Commentary articles
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Impact
In 2020, RUSI provided a written briefing on best practices in securing free trade zones for the Dubai Free Zones Council.
In the same year, RUSI experts submitted written evidence to multiple UK Government inquiries regarding the introduction of freeports, and gave oral evidence to the International Trade Committee’s Inquiry on UK Freeports. The project team have also delivered presentations to HM Treasury and The Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JIMLIT).
