ZONA LIBRE, th5'na. lO'brtc (Span., free zone), or ZONE. A name applied to the strip of country, 20 kilometers wide, extending across the northern frontier of Mexico from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Foreign goods intro duced into the Zone pay only per cent. (for merly only per cent.) of the regular duties, provided they are used within the district. 'the Zona Libre at first included only the State of Tamaulipas, and was proclaimed, March 27, 1858, by the Governor, who, in order to meet the com petition of the American towns on the left bank of the Rio ramie, especially in food products, remitted all Federal duties on materials consume( entirely within his State—a policy that was sanctioned, in 1861, by the Federal Congress. Almost coincident with this prochanatlou came the American Civil War. The advantage of neu tral ports caused a great increase in the com merce of Tamaulipas, and a resulting prosperity partly (hut wrongfully) attributed to the estab lishment of the Free Zone. Various attempts were made by the Mexican Congress to regulate matters within the Zone. In 1885 it was ex
tended across the whole frontier; in 1887 the privileges within the Zone were greatly increased. In 1891 duties were levied on manufactures within the Zone, if they were sent into the in terior of :Mexico, in the same manner as upon foreign goods; but in 1896 these duties, with cer tain restrictions, were removed. The general complaint from the interior of Mexico is that other manufacturers cannot compete with those of the Zone Libre, who obtain their raw products at a much lower rate; but this advantage has been largely neutralized by the decline in the value of silver. Shortly after the Civil War there was great opposition to the Free Zone along the United States border, it being claimed that its existence promoted smuggling and built up the Mexican towns at the expense of their Ameri can neighbors. The necessity for maintaining the Zone, in order to secure cheap food products in the Rio Grande Valley, no longer exists.