This is home to 74 factories that produce mainly textiles and electronic gadgets for export--duty-free and quota-free--to the U.S. These factories make up what is called a qualifying industrial zone (QIZ), an entity designated by the U.S. in 1996 to help increase imports from Jordan.

FORBES: Issues & Ideas

These export-processing zones provided for duty-free entry and duty-free exit for export-oriented goods and helped in the transfer of technology and skill to the developed countries.

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Repressive governments in Swaziland and Eritrea have been told they might forfeit their duty-free export status unless there are democratic reforms.

ECONOMIST: Trade and development

Mr Inama also fears that some crops will be transferred from excluded countries into the chosen 48, for duty-free export to Europe.

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The change is being caused by the expiration of the HEU-LEU contract, signed in 1993 by Russia and the US. The treaty, which expires in 2013, allowed the duty-free export of Soviet uranium extracted from nuclear warheads.

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In the past, foreign business offices were allowed to import cars, computers and so forth duty-free, on the understanding that they would eventually re-export them.

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The future growth of the Valley hangs less on under-age college boys in search of tequila than on maquiladoras which assemble duty-free materials with cheap Mexican labour into products for export back into the United States.

ECONOMIST: One river, one country