FOREIGN TRADE ZONES 55 8 Ad eo Jy n 11 Cy el TS ly A. ag Jy me- y is = ly rg Sus 18, <a ce es Consul Leslie B. Reed is of the opinion that the importance of Bremen in foreign trade may be said to be due in a very large degree bo the free port. Bremen’s importance as a commercial and trans- shipment tenter commenced immediately after the establishment of free zone. [n his report on the free port of Emden, Consul Reed states that the importance of Emden in foreign trade is due mainly to the estab- lishment of the free port and its connection with the Dortmund-Ems Canal. He calls attention to the fact that since 1890 up to the present, with the exception of the years from 1914 to 1922, the amount of cargo carried shows a very large increase after the establishment of the free port in 1901. Statistics show that the average annual net registered tonnage arriving at the port during the 10-year period ‘rom 1900-1909 was eight and one-half times as much as the average annual tonnage during the previous 10-year period 1890 to 1899, The free ports of Flensburg, Kiel, and Cuxhaven have had no im- portant influence on the development of foreign trade. It is reported by Vice Consul Ostertag that the free port of Bremer- haven has had a marked influence on the development of foreign trade. Vice Consul Harry L. Franklin states that the establishment of the ‘ree zone at Stettin has not played the réle in the development of foreign trade that Hamburg and Bremen have, although the shipping of the city since the opening of the free zone has increased rapidly. [t can not be determined whether this is due to the free port. It is reported by Consul Richard Ford that the declining impor- tance of the port of Cadiz in the foreign trade of Spain is tending to make the free zone of little value. At the present time the zone serves chiefly as a deposit for nontaxed merchandise (principally coal), for use in supplying steamers calling at Cadiz. This narrowing scope of the zone’s activities, combined with the consistently maintained ettitude of the Government in frowning upon any effort to increase the use of the free zone, has served to render it of little importance in this territory. The statistics show, however, that in 1927 a total of 75,000 metric tons of cargo were received in the free zone, compared with 16,000 tons in 1918 and 815 tons in 1921. In his report on the free port of Barcelona, Consul Frank Anderson Henry points out that it can hardly be doubted that the development of foreign trade will be favorably influenced upon the completion of the free port, but that on account of the relatively small traffic which 47068°—290———5