{ "model": { "rank": 8617, "code": "thing-q3929782", "model_id": "vr.tr.free-trade-zone", "name": "free trade zone", "purpose": "Let an agent explain free trade zones, relay types, purposes, operation and debates from trade and economics sources with positions attributed, describe the named forms, and distinguish free trade zones from free trade agreements, customs unions, bonded warehouses and special economic zones as the broader category.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q3929782/", "tier": 2, "score": 50, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "free trade zone in China", "Taiwan Free Economic Pilot Zones", "export-processing zone", "foreign-trade zones of the United States" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 50, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q3929782", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3929782", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-14T01:45:57Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q3929782", "registryId": "vr.tr.free-trade-zone", "name": "free trade zone", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q3929782/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.free-trade-zone", "name": "free trade zone", "purpose": "Let an agent explain free trade zones, relay types, purposes, operation and debates from trade and economics sources with positions attributed, describe the named forms, and distinguish free trade zones from free trade agreements, customs unions, bonded warehouses and special economic zones as the broader category.", "definition": "A designated area within a country where goods can be imported, handled, manufactured and re-exported under relaxed customs rules and duties, used to promote trade, manufacturing and investment, with forms the registry aliases name such as export-processing zones focused on manufacturing for export, foreign-trade zones of the United States, free trade zones in China and Taiwan s Free Economic Pilot Zones; these are types of special economic zone. Free trade zones can boost exports and jobs but are debated over labour conditions, tax revenue loss, and risks of smuggling and counterfeiting, and international bodies have issued guidance, with positions attributed.", "what_it_is_for": "Facilitating trade and manufacturing under relaxed customs rules.", "affordances": [ "explain types and purposes", "relay operation", "describe named forms", "present debates with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Relaxed customs rules", "Re-export focus", "Investment incentives", "Type of special economic zone" ], "appearance": "Fenced port and industrial areas with warehouses, factories and customs controls.", "visual_identification": [ "Customs-relaxed trade and manufacturing area", "Free trade zone in China, Taiwan Free Economic Pilot Zones, export-processing zone, foreign-trade zones of the United States", "Free trade agreements are treaties; customs unions share tariffs; bonded warehouses store dutiable goods; special economic zones are broader" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "Shannon Free Zone", "typical_range": "1959", "unit": "year", "note": "early modern free zone, Ireland" }, { "quantity": "registry parent", "typical_range": "special economic zone", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "WCO guidance", "typical_range": "on free zones and controls", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "export-processing zones", "free ports", "foreign-trade zones", "free economic zones" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "special economic zone", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "free trade agreement", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "customs union", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "bonded warehouse", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "WTO rules", "World Customs Organization guidance", "National free zone laws" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Smuggling and counterfeiting", "Labour and tax concerns", "Confusing zones with trade agreements" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a free trade zone is.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a free trade zone, and how does it differ from free trade agreements, customs unions, bonded warehouses and special economic zones?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about a specific zone s current rules, which need official sources?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Named forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are export-processing zones, US foreign-trade zones and Taiwan s pilot zones?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific zone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "operation", "name": "Operation", "description": "Operation.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "customs", "name": "Customs", "description": "Customs treatment.", "findings": [ { "id": "customs-finding", "name": "Customs", "description": "Customs.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are duties and customs handled in free zones?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "incentives", "name": "Incentives", "description": "Incentives.", "findings": [ { "id": "incentives-finding", "name": "Incentives", "description": "Incentives.", "questions": [ { "text": "What tax and regulatory incentives do zones offer?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "economics", "name": "Economics", "description": "Economic effects.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "development", "name": "Development", "description": "Development role.", "findings": [ { "id": "development-finding", "name": "Development", "description": "Development.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do studies report about zones and export-led growth, with findings attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "labour", "name": "Labour", "description": "Labour conditions.", "findings": [ { "id": "labour-finding", "name": "Labour", "description": "Labour.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do labour groups and researchers say about conditions in export-processing zones, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Risks.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "illicit", "name": "Illicit trade", "description": "Illicit trade.", "findings": [ { "id": "illicit-finding", "name": "Illicit trade", "description": "Illicit trade.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do the OECD and WCO report about counterfeiting and smuggling risks in free zones?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the information current?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "freeports", "name": "Free ports", "description": "Free ports revival.", "findings": [ { "id": "freeports-finding", "name": "Free ports", "description": "Free ports.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why have some countries revived free ports, and what debates surround them, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits free port?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should export-processing zones be a separate entry?", "How should national zone lists be linked?", "How should labour and revenue debates be presented?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a free trade zone, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain free trade zones, relay types, purposes, operation and debates from trade and economics sources with positions attributed, describe the named forms, and distinguish free trade zones from free trade agreements, customs unions, bonded warehouses and special economic zones as the broader category.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: free trade zone in China, Taiwan Free Economic Pilot Zones, export-processing zone, foreign-trade zones of the United States.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a free trade zone, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "free trade zone in China", "Taiwan Free Economic Pilot Zones", "export-processing zone", "foreign-trade zones of the United States" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one free trade zone from another, and a free trade zone from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a free trade zone sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a free trade zone from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a free trade zone passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a free trade zone between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a free trade zone, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a free trade zone is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a free trade zone.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a free trade zone and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a free trade zone, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a free trade zone and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a free trade zone sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What free trade zone is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does free trade zone take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of free trade zone, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in free trade zone and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of free trade zone may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does free trade zone have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a free trade zone came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a free trade zone and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a free trade zone is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a free trade zone, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a free trade zone, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a free trade zone is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }