China’s State Council has announced plans to create three new free trade zones modeled on the current one in Shanghai as Beijing moves to boost growth in its slowing economy, The Financial Times reported. The new zones will be established in the southern and eastern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, as well as in the northern port city of Tianjin. Despite being heralded as a laboratory for free market reforms, Shanghai’s free trade zone has mostly disappointed foreign investors, as it provides almost no advantages for foreign or domestic companies operating there–though some reforms introduced in the zone have since been adopted nationwide.
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