Starports and Freeports

[Zarpaulek]

I was just listening to a podcast about "freeports", a type of special economic zone primarily intended for international shipping.

And also featured in the movie "Tenet" and tv series "Succession" where they're portrayed as places where the connected and wealthy can do things that most authorities would frown upon.

While a lot of the business done in these freeports is in the form of ships or planes stopping off without their cargo going through customs inspections, there are other, less intended activities going on in them. A lot of warehousing for example, apparently they're still finding WWII artifacts stored in some European freeports. And untaxed manufacturing.

The extraterritoriality of Imperial Starports sounded fairly similar to me. And it seemed like some of the things going on at real life freeports could make good adventure seeds.

Maybe someone stumbled upon a stolen piece of art in a storage unit sealed for decades.

You might have a megacorporation setting up a hazardous chemical refinery in a Starport.

Or there could be a labor dispute between the locals and a corporation in the Starport.

 

[Condottiere]

Hazardous cargo is still likely to be scanned for, and possibly requires a bond.

 

[Anstett]

We talked a bit about that in this thread:

Further defining Starports

From the Interstellar Shipping thread discussing a desire to have better definitions for what a Starport is (https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/interstellar-shipping-question.124667/post-975702) {and killing time before my next meeting ;P } I found a few threads to collect information...

forum.mongoosepublishing.com

From WBH - 196
FREEPORTS
"A freeport is a public or quasi-public port not officially recognised by the SPA or by the local system government. Usually situated outside the effective jurisdiction of the local world’s control, often in orbit around a remote gas giant or above or upon some other distant world, the freeport can be either a spaceport or a starport, corporately run or independent."

Text about Law Levels and Government types to include this part:

"Corporate freeports tend to be tightly run ports. They can range from austere to luxurious but their main purpose is to earn a profit. Prices will be high and security will at least be good enough to prevent disruption to economic activities. In general, a freeport will have no affiliation with the
local government at all, as in the GeDeCo port at Oghma or the independent freeport at Blue, both in the Trojan Reach."

 

[MasterGwydion]

We talked a bit about that in this thread:

Further defining Starports

From the Interstellar Shipping thread discussing a desire to have better definitions for what a Starport is (https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/interstellar-shipping-question.124667/post-975702) {and killing time before my next meeting ;P } I found a few threads to collect information...

forum.mongoosepublishing.com

From WBH - 196
FREEPORTS
"A freeport is a public or quasi-public port not officially recognised by the SPA or by the local system government. Usually situated outside the effective jurisdiction of the local world’s control, often in orbit around a remote gas giant or above or upon some other distant world, the freeport can be either a spaceport or a starport, corporately run or independent."

Text about Law Levels and Government types to include this part:

"Corporate freeports tend to be tightly run ports. They can range from austere to luxurious but their main purpose is to earn a profit. Prices will be high and security will at least be good enough to prevent disruption to economic activities. In general, a freeport will have no affiliation with the
local government at all, as in the GeDeCo port at Oghma or the independent freeport at Blue, both in the Trojan Reach."

I do not believe that he was using the term "freeport" as it is used in Traveller. He means the Free Trade Zones in port cities that allow goods that passthrough to not be taxed or inspected by customs. As long as the item remains within the FTZ it counts as having not yet entered the country for the purposes of taxation and inspection.

 

[Anstett]

I do not believe that he was using the term "freeport" as it is used in Traveller. He means the Free Trade Zones in port cities that allow goods that passthrough to not be taxed or inspected by customs. As long as the item remains within the FTZ it counts as having not yet entered the country for the purposes of taxation and inspection.

Yes to this.
I was thinking along the lines of Free Trade Zones being part of every Starport that is under the SPA.
Then Freeports being the Starport/Spaceport that claims to be that FTZ but by it's own proclamation. A 'neutral place' in the system.

 

[Nelphine]

I would almost think a standard imperial starport is like a freeport.

The local government couldnt tax ships, or do customs inspections unless you leave the imperial area. So you can certainly do things the local authorities dont like.

Unlike real life free ports there would ve certain minimal requirements - the inperium might do an inspection for wmd's for example - so its not an exact comparison. But i think broadly, thats exactly the kind of tone an inperial starport is aiming for, and why smuggling for instance, could easily exist.

 

[phavoc]

They are called (in the US) Foreign Trade zones. Some of the benefits of them include:

No duty on imports until they leave FTZ for domestic destination
No duty on items brought into FTZ and exported
These items never enter Customs territory
Manufacturing FTZs can elect lower duty rate – component part or finished product
No state and local personal property tax (Imported inventory, or Domestic inventory held for export)
Other logistical and process savings

My company has it's warehouse in one. We import a lot from Japan and other places overseas. It's not much different than any other warehouse - but the paperwork can be a pain, and we have certain rules we have to follow in order to keep our FTZ certificates valid. But other than that it's pretty much like any other warehouse operation (physically at least).