free port

American  

noun

1. a port or special section of a port where goods may be unloaded, stored, and shipped without payment of customs duties.

2. a port open under equal conditions to all traders.

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free port British  

noun

1. a port open to all commercial vessels on equal terms

2. Also called: free zone.  a zone adjoining a port that permits the duty-free entry of foreign goods intended for re-export

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Etymology

Origin of free port

First recorded in 1705–15

Example Sentences

Odesa’s free port status financed its extraordinary architectural flowering in the 1800s and helped build its vibrant multiethnic society.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2024

It may be that a free port and international status for the town, with Italian sovereignty in cultural questions, would best serve the Allied and European cause, especially during the years of transition.

From The Guardian • May 6, 2020

Congress actually passed a bill in 1932 making these buildings a free port, which enabled importers to bring goods in duty free and store them on the premises — a commercial masterstroke.

From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2020

Jonty Bloom reports from Teesside, which plans to become the UK's first free port, offering customs-free imports and hoping to bring back manufacturing jobs.

From BBC • Nov. 28, 2018

Many years later, he wrote to Benjamin Vaughan, "The making England entirely a free port would have been the wisest step ever taken for its advantage."

From Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Bruce, Wiliam Cabell