The Chancellor has a plan.  Well, that’s a start I suppose.  The trouble is that his plan appears – as with so much of the “government” that we are enduring – to be driven by ideology not economics.  He favours “free ports.”

Free ports are trading zones where there is little or no tax payable until good cross their boundaries and enter the country proper.  They are supposed to  – and may – promote trade.  Goods can be landed, stored, handled, manufactured or reconfigured and re-exported without being subject to customs duty.  The trouble is that the EU has identified them as doing rather more than that; specifically, “identifying that their special tariff and duty status has aided the financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crime.”  It does not, then come as a complete surprise top learn that they are popular with high-net-worth individuals and criminal organisations amongst others seeking to circumvent recent crackdowns on bank secrecy.